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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




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MUH i t ' J "'i» i^tj^ 



PROFITS IN POULTRY 
KEEPING SOLVED 




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THE BRIGGS' SYSTEM AND SECRETS OF 
SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING 



An Economical, Labor Saving, Profit Assuring System 
of Poultry Raising 



EDITED BY 

HENRY TRAFFORD 

EDITOR POULTRY SUCCESS 



FIFTH EDITION 
1913 



THE A. D. HOSTERMAN COMPANT 

PUBLISHER 

SPRINGFIELD, OHIO 

BINGHAMTON, N. T. 



h 






CONTENTS 






PAGFT 



CHAPTER I — Briggs' Poultry Plant - 7 

CHAPTER II — Failures and How to Avoid Them . - . 10 

CHAPTER in — How to Erect and Run a Poultry Plant for Profit 12 

CHAPTER IV - Location of a Plant ------- 12 

CHAPTER V — Laying Out a Plant 13 

CHAPTER VI — Specifications for the Model Laying House - - 15 

CHAPTER VII — Directions for Constructing the Model Laying House 15 

CHAPTER VIII — Making of Hoppers -' 20 

CHAPTER IX — Care of Layers -------- 21 

CHAPTER X — An Egg Plant for Profit ------- 22 

CHAPTER XI — Processed Feeds and How to Produce Them - 26 

CHAPTER XII — Summer Care -------- 31 

CHAPTER XIII — A Free Range Plant with Least Labor - - 34 

CHAPTER XIV — Caring for a Yarded Plant 36 

CHAPTER XV — How to Build an Ideal Incubator House - - 38 

CHAPTER XVI — How to Run an Incubator ----- 38 

CHAPTER XVII — Chicks raised Nature's Way - - - - 41 

CHAPTER XVIII — Hatching Baby Chicks for Market - - - 45 

CHAPTER XIX — A Perfect Brooder - - 46 

CHAPTER XX — Raising Broilers — Bowel Trouble, It's Cause and 

Cure -------- 49 

CHAPTER XXI— Cold and Roup -------- 52 

CHAPTER XXII — Caring for a Plant where Wheat or Screenings 

Cannot be Bought ------ 53 

CHAPTER XXIII — When and How'to Start in Poultry Business 54 

CHAPTER XXlV - A Leghorn Plant for Profit ----- 56 

CHAPTER XXV — A White Wyandotte Plant for Profit - - 59 
CHAPTER XXVI — A Combination Plant for Profit, Fruit, Poul- 
try and Bees ------- 62 

CHAPTER XX\'II — Loss of Breeders During Heavy Laying Season 63 

CHAPTER XXVIII — Molting -.,----- 64 

CHAPTER XXIX — Feeding and Selection of Large Breeds 

Important ..-.--- 65 

CHAPTER XXX —To Erect a Yarded Plant ----- 67 

CHAPTER XXXI — Fireless Brooder. Tricks of the Trade, etc. - 6S 

CHAPTER XXXII— Duck Culture - . - 69 

CHAPTER XXXIII — Packing Eggs for Hatching and Market - 72 

CHAPTER XXXIV — Telling the Sex ------- 73 

CHAPTER XXXV — Keeping Eggs Clean in the Nests . - - 74 

CHAPTER XXXVI — Summary^ ------ - - 74 

Briggs' "Secrets in Poultry Culture" 

Secret of Success in Handling Early Chicks ----- 79 

Secret of Raising Late Hatched Chicks - . - - . 79 

Secret of Large Egg Yield - - - - 80 

' Secret of Feeding Unthreshed Grain in Winter - - - - 81 

, ■ Secret of Getting Eggs Every Month ------- 82 

Secret of Curing White Diarrhoea 83 

Secret of Curing Gapes ---------- 84 

Secret Formula for Lice Powder ------- 84 

Secret for Making Liquid Lice Killer ------- 85 

Secret of Raising Turkeys --------- 86 

Secret of Dry Mash for 'Baby Chicks - - 86 

Secret of Dry Mash for Laying Fowls - 87 



Briggs' "Secrets in Poultry Cultitre"— Continued. 

Secret of Egg Preserving Formula - 87 

Secret of Breeding for Layers 88 

Secret of Telling the Laying Hen 89 

Secret of Fattening Poultry . - 89 

Secret of Breaking up Brooding Hens ------ 89 

Secret of Molting Fowls Early - - 91 

Secret of Preparing White Birds for Exhibition - - - - 91 

Secret of Feeding Salt ---------- 92 

Results ----- 94 

Index of Subjects - 95 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Portrait of Author, Edgar Briggs -------- 4 

Home of Author, and Experimental Plant - - - - . . 9 

General View Briggs' Poultry Plant ------- 11 

The Briggs' Model Laying House - - - 14 

Frame of Briggs' Model Laying and Brooder House - - - 16 

Diagram of End of Laying House - - - - - - - - 18 

Section of Nest Boxes ----------- 19 

Feed Hopper, End and General View - 20 

Section of Briggs' Poultry Farm, Arrangement, Etc. - . - 23 

Typical White Wyandotte Cock - - - - - - - - ' '^^ 

Series of Bins for Sprouting Oats and Grain 27 

Sectional View Briggs' Poultry Plant 28 

Natural Drainage Characteristic of Briggs' Poultry Farm - - 30 

Group of Laying Houses ----------- 32 

Prize Winning Barred Plymouth Rock Cock ----- 33 

Prize Winning White Plymouth Rock Cock - - - - - - 35 

Black Orpington, First Prize, Alleniown, Pa. ----- 37 

First Prize White Minorca Hen at Madison Square, New York - 39 

A Perfect Brooder - - - - 46 

One Half of Brooder from Center to Back ------ 47 

Brooder Complete Except Hover 48 

Trio of Prize Winning White Leghorns ------- 49 

Colony House Showing Portion of Brooder 50 

Interior View of the Briggs' Model Laying House - . . - 55 

Pair of Winning Silver Laced Wyandottes .58 

Typical Heads of Male and Female White Wyandottes - - - 61 

An Ideal Location— Partial View of the Briggs' Farm - - - 66 

End View of the Briggs' Model Laying House - - - - - 77 

Buft~ Orpington Cock, First at Philadelphia ------ 78 

High Class S. C. White Leghorn Cock - - - - - - 81 

Barred Plymouth Rock Male, Showing Fine Shape and Barring - 83 

Barred Plymouth Rock Hen of Fine Type -_.--- 85 

Famous Pen of S. C. White Leghorns - - - - - - ,87 

Silver Duck Wing Leghorn, First at Madison Square - - - 90 

S. C. Rhode Island Red --------- - 92 

Well Bred S. C. White Leghorn Cock ------ 93 



Copyright 1913 by 
THE A. D. HOSTERMAN COMPANY 

First Edition Copyright 1906. 
Second Edition Copyright 9907. 
Third Edition Copyright 1908. 
Fourth Edition Copyright 1910. 




EDGAR BRIGGS 

Author of " Profits in Poultry Keeping Solved " and " Secrets in Poultry Culture " 

For a quarter of a century Mr. Briggs has been investigating and 
experimenting. He has worked out a "method" of successful poultry- 
raising, and gives in this book, secrets and easilv-follow^ed short-cuts and 
labor-saving methods, that makes him, as he has'been called, "the Thomas 
A. Edison of the poultry world," 



INTRODUCING MR. BRIGGS. 



In the way of introduction to those who have never 
heard of me or of my new methods, it is perhaps advisable 
that I should say something about myself. I was born a poul- 
tryman ; ni}^ father before me bred fancy stock all his life and 
from a small boy I gathered eggs, took charge of the poultry, 
exhibited them at the country fairs and had birds of my own. 
I have bred fancy stock all my life and tried the winter broiler 
business with fatal results, as hundreds of others have done. 
This led me to experimenting and also stud3'ing nature's 
methods to see if there was not some way in which the}^ could 
be raised on a large scale without such great loss. The result 
is, after fifteen years of careful experimenting, I have solved 
the problem and am now able to put any poultry plant on a 
paying basis, regardless of location or other obstacles. Plants 
that went out of business on account of using the ordinary 
methods have started up under my new methods and have 
had wonderful success. The first edition of my book which 
was put on the market seven years ago has all been sold, as 
well as the second edition of 3,000 copies in 1907 ; and the 
third edition of 5,000 copies in 1908, and the fourth edition of 
10,000 copies in 1910, and now the fifth edition of 10,000 
copies becomes necessary. 

My great feed, for such it is, at 15 cents or less per 
bushel, will make any plant pay. After experimenting with 
processed oats, my main feed for 15 years, I consider I now 
have as near a perfect feeding system as can be obtained for 
either a yarded or free-range plant. Follow my methods and 
my instructions as laid down in this book, and success is 
certain. Read every line carefully. You cannot go wrong. 
A fortune awaits everyone who builds one of my free-range 
plants, as they are bound to pay a handsome profit under my 
system of care and feeding. 

Very truly yours, 

EDGAR BRIGGS, Author. 
Dated December, 1912. 



EXPLANATION BY THE EDITOR 

In editing and arrangins: this, the fifth edition of "PRO- 
FITS IN POULTRY KEEPING SOLVED," by Edgar 
Briggs, it seems fitting and proper that I should make an 
explanation both in justice to Mr. Briggs, the author, and 
myself. 

During the entire work of editing this, and former edi- 
tions of the "Briggs Book," which is another and familiar 
name applied to "PROFITS IN POULTRY KEEPING 
SOLVED," it has been a constant aim and desire on my part 
to preserve Mr. Briggs' characteristic style of expressing him- 
self, and not in any wise, at any time, to interpose or make 
use of my own style in writing. In a fe\y instances, how- 
ever, it has been impossible to avoid such interpositions. 

To my mind, if I were to have robbed Mr. Briggs' manu- 
script of that peculiar characteristic style he has of express- 
ing himself in writing, it would have likewise robbed this 
and other editions of his book, which I have edited, of a 
large amount of its interest and charm and would have been 
an injustice to him. 

Mr. Briggs lays no claims to being a classic writer, and 
his book therefore should not be compared with this class of 
books and publications, but is rather the written record of 
the actual experience of Mr. Briggs upon his own poultry 
farm, in his words. 

I have visited Mr. Briggs' poultry farm on several oc- 
casions, and have been given each time carte blanc to go 
ahead and investigate and find out all I could about his busi- 
ness, and as a result of these visits and investigations I can 
say without the least hesitanc}' at all, that Mr. Briggs is con- 
ducting the most practical and profitable poultry plant, for 
the amount of capital expended for labor and maintenance, 
that there is in existence today. In other words Mr. Briggs' 
poultry plant is, without doubt, turning him in a larger pro- 
fit on capital invested than any other poultry business to be 
found in this or any other country. I would net say this if 
I were not in possession of information which bears me out 
fully. 

Not only do the publishers of this book, but Mr. Briggs 
also, extends an invitation to every interested person tq visit 
his poultry plant at Pleasant Valley, N. Y., and investigate 
for themselves. The Briggs' Poultry Plant is a living, exist- 
ing reality, where big things are being accomplished in the 
poultry business. HENRY TRAFFORD, Editor. 



PROFITS IN POULTRY KEEPING SOLVED 



CHAPTER I 

Briggs' Poultry Plant 

In the summer of 1909 I transferred to the publishers of 
"Poultry Success," of Springfield, Ohio, the right, title, and 
ownership of the copyright and property of this book, and 
all future editions ; and entered into a contract to continue 
my investigations and experiments, and to include all my 
new ideas, discoveries and secrets in new and revised editions 
of "Profits in Poultry Keeping Solved," to be published by 
"Poultry Success." Under this arrangement the revised 
Fourth Edition was published by The A. D. Hosterman Com- 
pany, publishers of "Poultry Success," in the Fall of 1910. The 
object of myself and the publishers is to get out a new edi- 
tion as often as it seems advisable, so as to give the public 
the benefit of my latest experiments which have proved of 
value. 

In 1908 I bought a farm of 60 acres upon Avhich I have 
since lived and carried on my experiments. This farm was 
especially adapted to building one of my free range plants 
upon, and where I could entertain my friends, who are always 
welcome and made to feel at home. 

I am now keeping on my plant nearly 2,000 layers of the 
very choicest Single Comb White Leghorns to be found in 
this country, and these are housed and cared for exclusively 
on my famous free range system. These, with over 2,000 
more, mated on outside farms are all cared for in the same 
manner as those at home. Thus I am in fine shape to handle 
my trade in eggs for hatching in large and small lots, be- 
sides bab}' chicks in season. 

I now have 38 houses on my home plant for poultry 
alone, both old and young. I have 14 colony houses, 8 x 16, 
where all my young stock is raised on free range. These 
colony houses are in rows upon a four-acre field, divided by 
a four-foot wire-netting fence from my layers, and this ground 
is set out to peach and plum trees which gave us a fine crop 
of fruit this year, and makes an ideal place for growing young 
stock. 



8 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

I spare no pains or expense in growing my young birds. 
My aim is to restock part of my plant each year with pullets 
which are about one year old when the breeding season starts, 
and I also raise several hundred grand cockerels for breed- 
ing, which I have a large market for. Nearly all my pullets 
are hatched in February and March, which means that I 
hatch from my greatest layers, as the best layers will be lay- 
ing in January and February. The poorer the layer the later 
in the Spring Avill she start to lay. No eggs laid contain great- 
er vitality than those laid first, so in this way I am not only 
developing a heavy laying strain, but birds of the greatest 
health and vigor. 

I have at present 23 laying houses, all filled with Single 
Comb White Leghorns of tlie hig'hest quality. Most of these 
houses carry 75 layers each. In front of m}'- dwelling, across 
the highway, I have a five-acre field with a fine stream of 
water running through it, making one of the most natural 
locations to be found hereabouts for poultry. I carry nearly 
1,000 layers in this field. They are one-year-old Single Comb 
White Leghorns of exceptional quality. This ground is coim- 
posed of sand and gravel — a more perfect soil cannot be found 
for poultry. The balance of my layers are kept on high lime- 
stone ground under my special system of cultivation, and 
gives grand results. 

I have also built, since the last edition of my book came 
out, a large incubator house, 30 x 30, on a side-hill. The 
basement is filled with incubators, and the upper story is 
used for a feed house. I also use the basemen.t of this house 
for processing my oats. 

During 1913 I contemplate buildmg another large in- 
cubator house, 20 X 75, or larger, to hold two mammoth in- 
cubators, as my baby chick business is outgrowing my present 
capacity. I will run 35 290-egg incubators during 1913, and 
expect to be able to ship 70,000 baby chicks. 

Visitors are welcome at my poultry plant any day except 
Sunday. Do not fail to pay me a visit if you come this way. 
My place is located three-quarters of a mile from Pleasant 
Valley depot, on the old P. E, R. R., now owned and run by 
the New York, New Haven 8z Hartford R. R. All trains 
from Poughkeepsie Bridge Depot stop at Pleasant Valley. 
To reach my place from station, turn to left, walk to hotel 
past the front and turn to the left, walk north by the hotel 
and straight ahead until you reach my place — fifteen minutes 
walk from the depot. If notified I will meet you at the sta- 
tion with my automobile. 



POULTRY RAISING 



o w 
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a 
f 

P) • 







10 BRTGGS' SYSTEM OF 

CHAPTER II 
Failures and How to Avoid Them. — Secrets of Success 

I feel that I must say a few words at this time to the 
old poultry raisers, as well as to the new ones. It may sur- 
prise many to know that some of the largest poultry plants 
in the country have gone out of business in the last few years 
simply because they tried to run their plants contrary to or 
against nature. 

I took a\ little trip in August of 1911, and visited some of 
these large plants and observed enough to convince me as to 
why they failed. As a rule they are so pressed for cash early 
in the Spring they sell too closely the eggs produced for hatch- 
ing and for baby chicks. The result is they keep none for 
their own plant until May and June, and their own plant is 
therefore stocked with a lot of late-hatched weakly chicks 
w^hich they try to grow up for next season's breeders. The 
result is a lot of undersized pullets lacking in stamina, are 
placed in their yards for breeders. This plan is followed for 
two or three years and the next thing is a lot of sick birds 
full of roup and the plant is out of business. Late-hatched 
chicks have not the stamina, and being weakly are subject to 
all the diseases known. 

My birds grow in vigor each year and are among the 
greatest layers in this country, and there is no reason why 
others cannot do the same if they follow my methods. There 
is no other way to my mind, that one can build up a success- 
ful poultry plant ; one that will pay a profit for years to come. 

Labor is another item that has helped to put many of the 
large plants out of business. You may ask why I do not 
built up a plant capable of carrying 10,000 layers. I will tell 
vou. Competent labor cannot be found, and I prefer to 
handle only what business I can look after personally, for in 
no other way can you do a satisfactory business with the pub- 
lic. I personally pick out all stock shipped from my plant, 
as well as pack all eggs, crate all baby chicks, and personally 
look after every detail. In this way I have built up a won- 
derful business, a thing anyone ought to be able to do if they 
give it the same personal care. I conduct my plant so as to 
produce the greatest layers and at the same time get more 
vigorous birds yearly. 

My first eggs are placed in the incubators so as to hatch 
the last Saturday in February. This is my hatch and these 
chicks are kept on the place. 



POULTRY RAISING 



11 



The next eggs are put in to come off the next week on 
Monday that is nine days from the first. With this hatch 
I fill all remaining brooders on my plant. The balance are 
used to fill my first baby chick orders. 

I have thus placed out chicks to replace my breeders be- 
fore I ship out a single baby chick order, and the result is my 
pullets are all hatched from the very best layers on my plant, 
for the greatest layers are always laying in January and 
February and the eggs laid during these two months hatch 
chicks with the vigor and stamina of the hen. 

These chicks just live and grow from the start, and be- 
gin to lay in July and August, and lay a number of eggs 
until in October or about November 1st, when many of them 




GENERAL VIEW OF BRIGGS' POULTRY PLANT 

Operated according to the system described in this book 

will pass through a moult, and when they start to laying 
again in January they are yearling hens and make the very 
choicest of breeders. In this way you can depend on your 
poultry plant being a success. This is truly the secret of 
success of any plant. 

*CreI Oil is very important to use in keeping all germs 
and lice down. Also Little Red Hen Tonic should always 
be kept on hand in cases of emergency. 



'Editor's Note : — "Crel Oil" is manufactured by the Caledonia 
Chemical Company, Caledonia, New York. 



12 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

CHAPTER III 
How to Erect and Run a Poultry Plant for Profit 

I will now tell 3^ou how to erect and run a poultry plant 
on an entirely new system for saving labor and money mak- 
ing. A plant for the farmer as much as the business man ; 
a plant that can be run by an amateur, so that without ex- 
perience it can be made to pay a profit from the start. It is 
conceded by men who know, that ninety-five out of every' one 
hundred who start make a failure in the poultry business. 
The reason for this is because they go entirely opposite to* 
nature in caring for them. A hen in her wild state roosts in 
trees and feeds on seeds of various kinds, worms and insects 
of every description, and when you shut her up in a yard you 
make a prisoner of her. Under these conditions she is fed 
on mashes of various kinds until she is sick and out of condi- 
tion and the natural result or consequence is she does not lay 
more than 3/2 the eggs she is capable of doing, in some cases 
not an egg. Hens kept under such conditions in many cases 
die of roup or cholera or other malignant diseases. 

Another very important thing we can learn from the hen 
in her wild state is that she always lays her brood of eggs 
during the spring time, hatches and raises her chicks when 
the ground gives up a crop of worms and various other in- 
sects, and by the time the chicks are fit to wean, dry weather 
of summer comes on and worms and insects become scarce, 
and the result is the hen lays no more eggs during the year. 

Now, in order to keep hens laying the year round, we 
must produce spring-'time conditions the year round. And 
there is nothing that can take the place of insects equal to 
green cut bone but this is very hard to obtain in most places, 
and especially on a large scale, therefore, as a rule, we must 
use beef scraps in place of it. 

CHAPTER IV 

Location 

First of all we must have a suitable location. This is a 
very important thing if you are going- in the poultry business 
for profit. If you do not own a farm and wish to buy one, by 
all means spend some time and get one suitable for the busi- 
ness. I ad\nse not less than fifty to seventy-five acres. One 



POULTRY RAISING 13 

with a nice big orchard on it is most desirable. By all means 
get a place with one or more streams of water running- 
through it, and if these streams are fed by springs so much 
the better. Under no circumstances buy a place for the poul- 
try business unless it is well watered, for this is where a 
great amount of labor saving comes in, moreover, the poultry 
will do much better — this is nature. 

Get a place, if possible, sloping to the south, with gravel- 
ly or sandy soil. Sixty acres will carry five thousand layers 
nicely and leave room enough to raise six thousand young- 
sters if it is laid out right, besides furnish pasture for your 
horses and cows, leaving room for garden and various other 
things you will want on a farm. An ideal poultry farm should 
be inclosed with a five-foot fence of wire netting and two 
barb wires over this. It should also have a base board of 
rough hemlock sunk two inches or more below the surface of 
the ground. This makes a plant practically proof against all 
kind of animals, and there is nothing that has more enemies 
than chickens. This is all the fence you will need on your 
plant, as a rule, unless you go into fancy breeding or wish to 
divide your cockerels and pullets, in this case you should 
fence in the fields. Your hens must have free range if you 
want results and you should remember the profit lies in eggs. 
Therefore, an egg plant is what you must have to make 
money. A plant of this kind laid out right and handled pro- 
perly can be run by the labor of one man most of the time, 
as under my system labor is reduced to the minimum. High 
cost of labor has put more poultry plants out of businss than 
any other one thing. 

CHAPTER V 

Laying Out a Plant 

Build the laying houses on both sides of the stream of 
water far enough away to keep on high ground. Put your 
houses 60 to 75 feet apart according to your ground, allowing 
■from 60 to 75 Leghorns to a house; or fifty Wyandottes, 
Rocks or the larger breeds. Colonize your flocks in this man- 
ner, then you will have no further trouble, as nearly every hen 
will go in her own house. 

To flock or colonize them, put your hens in the house and 
keep them shut up for three days, letting them out on the 
third day one hour before dark. Y'our hens get acquainted 



14 



BRTGGS' SYSTFM OF 



in the three days they are shut up together and will ever 
after that run together and return to their own house to lay 
and roost. After trying houses of various kinds and styles, I 
have never found one that suits me so well as the one illus- 
trated below and Avill later describe. I consider it the most 
perfect house built at the present time — and also the cheapest 
of construction. 




POULTRY RAISING 15 

CHAPTER VI 

Specifications for the Model Laying House 

Following- is a list of the lumber that is required to build 
a liouse, such as is referred to in the preceding chapter : 

Three chestnut planks, 2 by 8 by 20 feet long. 

Thirty-three boards, 1 by 8 by 16 feet long, tongued and 
grooved. 

Thirty-three boards, 1 by 8 by 14 feet long, tongued and 
grooved. 

Twelve hemlock, '2 by 4 by 20 feet long. 

Five 2 by 3, ten feet long, for roosts. 

Three windows, one 8 by 10 glass, six panes each and 2 
canvas covered frames. 

This house is ten feet wide, twenty feet long, four feet 
high at eaves, with double pitched roof made of tongued and 
grooved boards, so that roofing of any kind is not required. 
A roof of this kind will never leak, to any amount, if put up 
with lumber well dried- out. 

Cypress is the best of all lumber for these houses as it 
will stand the weather far better than any other kind, and 
will last for man}' years without deca}'ing. White pine is 
the next best and the only other kind of lumber that can be 
successfully used where no lining- paper or roofing paper is 
used. Second quality lumber will answer every purpose if 
you use judginent in cutting it and putting it on, but you 
must have your lumber good and dry, so it will not shrink 
apart. 

Use the best lumber on north side and end of house. A 
view of the frame illustrated elsewhere will aid you very 
much in building your first house. 

CHAPTER VIT 
Directions for Constructing the Model Laying Houses. 

1 will now try to tell you very plainly how to construct 
these houses, so that anyone that can use a saw and hammer 
ought to be able to build them. 

First square up two planks twenty feet long, then take 
your third plank and make two planks ten feet long each 
Now spike 3'our twentv-foot plank on your ten-foot plank, 
using twenty-penny nails, and you have a box twenty feet 
long- and ten feet four inches wide outside measure. 



IG 



BRTGGS' SYSTEM OF 



Saw six pieces of 2 by 4, four feet long-, then saw out each 
one of these 2 by 8. These make your corner posts and also 
your center posts. Spike these firmly on your plank box, one 
in each corner, and one in the center of house, letting the 2 by 
8 piece come on your plank. Nail from inside and let flat side 
come towards ends. This will make your outside even. Then 
saw four pieces 3 feet 4 inches long to double your corners 
with. These nail from plank up on each end. This will 
make them all even on ends and sides. Now take a 2 by 4, 
just 20 feet long, nailing one on each side flatways on top of 
your uprights even with ends and outside. Now take a 2 by 4 
ten feet four inches long, saw two inches out of each end, 
drop this in center of house on your plank, which drops bot- 
tom two inches! below level of plank ; spike firmly both ways. 
This keeps your house from spreading and is also a division. 
Take a 2 by 4 nine feet eight inches long, spike this at 
end of house, opposite end from door, between your 2 by 4 
even with top of plate. This piece stays and keeps 3^our end 
from spreading and is also used to nail your end boards to. 
Now take two more 2 by 4, saw ten feet three inches long, 



ILLUSTRATION OF FRAME 

J ^ V - 1 o U //3»^ 




Ik 'i - 10 fl- LO A(^ 

THE BRIGGS' MODEL LAYING AND BROODING HOUSE 



t>OULTUY RAISING if 

nail one in center of house to upright under plate, nail the 
other at end where your door goes in same way, using a 
twenty-penny nail — just one in each end — as both of these 
come out after your roof is on. These are used to keep house 
from spreading and are also used in putting roof on, as we 
lay a 20-foot plank on them to stand on in nailing the roof 
on. Now saw two sets of rafters, each rafter 6 feet 8 inches 
long. Heel must fit on plate and have your top come to- 
gether nicely. 

Make a pattern and keep it for future sawing, as you 
may have trouble fitting the first pair. 

Nail each set together on ground, then spike firmly on to 
your plates even with outside in each case. After this, put 
in a ridge, a 2 by 4, 19 feet 8 inches long. Spike this in peak 
between your sets of rafters, letting flat side come even with 
souih side of house and upper edge e^^en with peak. Spike 
firmly through end of rafters, using three spikes in each end. 
Then lit a pair of rafters in center of house, raising your ridge 
in center a little above a level. Then put in two cross-pieces, 
three feet from peak on each side. Spike firmly through end 
rafters and center rafter, as your roof boards nail on these. 
Now put in your door studding in center of end. Then mak« 
your door about thirty inches wide, according to the 
width of your boards, and about six feet high. Put in a 
2 by 4 on each side, setting bottom on plank and sawing on 
top to fit under rafter. Now put a short piece on top 
and you have your frame complete, except a 2 by 4 from 
door frame to corner of house, to nail your end boards to. 

Now you are ready for the siding. Take, if you use white 
pine, 1 by 8, 16 foot boards. Take 16 boards, sawing each' in 
four feet lengths. This gives you 64 boards, four feet long. 
Begin at a corner, nailing one inch from top of plate, as your 
roof boards come over these and just pass it. See that you 
get your joints perfectly tight. 

After putting on both sides put on your ends, up and 
down same as siding. For roof boards saw 14 foot boards 
one-half inch from center. This makes one-half of the boards 
just one inch longer than the other. Now plane off th,^ 
groove in first board. Let this project two inches over end 
of house. Put on the south side first using your shortest 
boards nailing them about three-eighths of an inch from the 
peak, as the boards on north side nail over these, and in this 
case you use no ridge board. 

Your roof boards should be very dry, and if put firmly 
together, yoii will have no leaky roofs. 



18 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



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10 Ft. 

DIAGRAM OF END OF HOUSE 

Next saw out openings for your windows and curtain 
frames. One opening for each. 

Just back of the center of the south side cut opening for 
a glass window, nail a 2 by 4 lengthwise for window to 
slide on. Put your other opening in towards front from cen- 
ter about two boards from center of house and under plate, 
just the same as the window opening was placed and fit a 
frame covered with muslin instead of sash in this opening. 
See illustration. 

Saw a hole for letting out fowls in front part of house 
under the two openings and put in a slide which may be slid 
sideways with your feet. 

Now place your roosts. First, nail a strip up and down 
seven feet from back end. Put a 2 by 4 block on plank to 
keep this strip out so window will slide in between. Now 
nail a seven foot strip from end of house to your short strip 
sixteen inches below top of plate. Do this on both sides and 
on these boards lay your roosts 2 by 3 ten feet long. About 
5 of these gives sixty hens plenty of room. You can notch 
your board one inch to lay them in. Do not nail them. 

Put in your feed hoppers and nests, and your house is 
practically complete. 



POULTRY RAISING 



19 



Nests 

I will tell you in this connection how to make one 
of the handiest and best nests I know of, one of my own 
invention, very simple in construction, one anyone can make, 
who can use a sawi and hammer. Take a tongued and groov- 
ed board (yellow pine is the cheapest), 7 1-2 inches wide 16 ft. 
long sawed in two making two 8 foot lengths. Take 3 of 
these 8 foot lengths, cleat them together with 4 cleats about 
21 inches long leaving 1 inch at back for nest to rest on a long 
cleat nailed to side of house when nest is put up. Nail another 
board on top of this in front which forms the front of your 
nests. Now saw 9 pieces 13 inches long and put one every 
foot. Nail these inside of board which forms your front by 
nailing through this board into each strip. At end of these 9 
pieces nail a 4 inch strip entire length 8 feet, and you have 8 
nests complete. In order to put a steep cover on your nests 
so no hens can roost upon the nest, you saw 6 boards same 
length as the bottom of your nests about 22 1-2 inches long, 
and saw on a slant from back side or from side of house to 






ILLUSTRATION OF ONE SECTION OF NEST BOXES 



20 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



your front board so the nest is about 1 board high in front 
and 3 boards high in back. For a cover lay your first board 
even with outer edge of nest. The next board is nailed firmly 
to the .3 partitions also your next which will come to the sid- 
ing just under plate; now hinge your first board to second, 
then all you have to do to get your eggs is to raise your hing-- 
ed board which gives access to all eight nests. The hens 
enter the nests at either end, on side nearest to wall of your 
house. I nail these nests against back side of house about 18 
inches from floor. Leghorn hens easily jump into them. For 
larger breeds it is best to nail a short board at each end, 4 
inches lower than opening. I find this set of 8 nests sufficient 
for 7.S layers. 

CHAPTER VIII 
Making of Hoppers 

Your feed hopper should be made large enough to take 
a bag of feed of one hundred pounds, sufficient to last a flock 
of sixty layers near two weeks. To make this, take a common 
hemlock board, twelve inches wide, for bottom and ends, 




S/YO 
V/BW 




feed 
Hopper 




ILLUSTRATION OF FEED HOPPER 



saw a piece two feet long for bottom, two pieces three feet 
long for ends. Nail these together. Now use tongued and 
grooved boards for back and front. To put in your back, fit 
your first board inside of ends, letting it come on bottom in 
center of hopper and top edge of board even with back of hop- 



POULTRY RAISING 21 

per, putting rest of back boards even with outside. Better 
put rest of boards on outside. Now for your front put first 
board one inch from bottom and one inch from your other 
board letting top of board come even with outside front 
of feeder, then board up on outside. This lets your feedi 
come out in front. Now put a four-inch strip across front at 
bottom. This keeps your hens from throwing out the grain. 

You can also make a three-department box for oyster 
shells, grit and charcoal, which should be kept before them 
at all times — grit to grind their feed, oyster shells for lime 
in making shells, etc., and charcoal for a regulator. 

Another hopper which can be made at small expense and 
is grand for feeding beef scraps is as follows : Get a box at 
grocery store, say 15 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 10 or 
12 inches high ; now board this box up tight ; only leave a 
3-inch opening across entire front of box at top. Fill this box 
with beef scraps; hang on a nail by boring a hole near the 
top and your hens can eat until it is empty and no bother 
about clogging. Other sizes of boxes will work just the same. 
Yoij can use one double this size for other feed. Your hens 
put their heads in this 3-inch opening and eat. Hang box 
close to the ground. These boxes will cost you nothing at 
grocery stores where you trade. 

CHAPTER IX 
Care of Layers 

I will now tell you how to care for three thousand layers 
with but little labor, so you should clear $3,000 a year from 
them. 

If you have built your plant on a stream of water you 
will have no watering to do. 

Keep your feed boxes filled at all times. 

Never let them get empty. 

Your main feed is to be! the best quality of wheat screen- 
ings, or a cheap grade of wheat. 

Your large hopper will take a one-hundred-pound bag of 
feed which should last a full week, often two weeks. 

You should make a round every week and fill all your 
hoppers — one with wheat screenings, one with beef scraps, 
and your three-department hopper with grit, oyster shells 
and charcoal. 

If your plant is built on a stream and inclosed with a 
good wire-netting fence, all the work you have to do during 



22 BRTGGS' SYSTEM OF 

the week is to gather your eggs every night and at the same 
time give each flock of fowls two quarts of cracked corn in 
litter. 

Remember your fowls should have wheat feed before 
them all the time so they can safely have a light feed of grain 
every night. 

A horse and wagon should be used for making the 
rounds at all times. A good gentle horse that can be left 
standing and is not afraid of anything is what you want. 

From November until April you will have to make two 
trips a day to your houses. As cold weather comes on your 
windows and curtain fronts will have to be closed nights 
and should be opened again in the morning when the sun 
shines and warms things up. 

On this same trip you should give your hens all the 
processed oats they will eat — about four quarts to each 
colony of birds. 

In case of heavy snow storms your hens can eat snow 
and they will lay just as many eggs as though they got to 
the brook to drink — and even more. 

You should keep the end of your house, where your 
nests, hoppers, etc., are. well bedded during the winter and 
throw your grain in so as to give them all the exercise pos- 
sible. 

CHAPTER X 

An Egg Plant for Profit 

To run a large poultry plant for the greatest possible 
profit, will require correspondingly more labor, but will pay 
the most profit, labor considered, of anything I know of at the 
present time. I have experimented to my entire satisfaction, 
and find that fowls, to be kept in perfectly healthy condition, 
should have free access to feed at all times, and they will 
lay fully one-third to one-half more eggs a year, — eggs that 
will hatch, for they will be produced in nature's way. 

I have found nothing better than good quality wheat 
screenings, same to be kept before them at all times, so you 
must keep a hopper of wheat screenings always before them ; 
also one of beef scraps, giit. oyster shells and charcoal. If 
possible, in order to get your greatest profit, you should 
have a free-range plant such as I have described and I pre- 
fer Leghorns. Of all the Leghorn family there is none that 
will produce more eggs, larger and finer ones than the 
.Single-Comb White Leghorn. 



POULTRY RAISING 



23 



I am positive an average of 200 eg-gs a hen can be pro- 
duced under this system of feeding and caring for them. 

One good man can care for five thousand layers during 
the summer, providing some one looks after marketing of the 
eggs. But in winter care, sa}^ from Nov. 1 to April 1, it will 
keep two men busy. My aim is to tell you how to produce 
eggs the year around in the greatest possible number. 

I will begin with 

the winter care, say 
November 1. when 
your stock should all 
be properly housed 
in the colony houses 
I have already told 
you how to build. 
We will assume you 
have a Leghorn 
plant of three to five 
thousand layers. 
We usually have 
much cold weather 
during November in 
this part of the state. 
Of course you will 
have to vary this 
part of the system 
according to your 
own weather condi- 
tions. The first 
thing in the morning 
as soon after day- 
light as convenient, 
start out with a load 
of processed oats, 
and give each flock 
of sixty layers about 
four quarts. If the 
morning is warm, 
open your windows. 
If cold, leave them 
closed until next 
trip, after breakfast, 
about 8 to 9 a. m. 
If the morning is cold and freezing, you should take a 
Joad of warm water and give each flock enough for the day. 




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24 



BRTGGS' SYSTEM OF 



The finest thing I know of to water a large plant of this kind 
is a 1 1-2 gallon butter crock. Get the low kind, for they 
are easily kept clean and require but little labor in filling. 
Even if your hens have free access to a stream of water they 




TYPICAL WHITE WYANDOTTE COCK 



should be watered in their houses during the winter if you 
want a large egg yield. In the morning, when a hen comes 
off the roost, she is apt to be dry, especially if she is laying, 
and it is very essential at this time that she should have warm 
water to drink for cold water chills her and makes her dull 
and all humped up and the result is your egg yield stops. 



POULTRY RAISING 



25 



About one p. m. give each flock all they will eat again of 
processed oats. Feed this very liberally, as you Avill find that 
they will always be hungry for it. You cannot overfeed them 
on it. This is one of the greatest egg producing feeds I know 
of, and there is nothing which makes eggs so fertile. 

Hens will eat processed oats when they will look at no- 
thing else. It can be produced for fifteen cents a bushel at 
the highest. I will tell you in my next chapter how to pro- 
cess the oats in the most convenient time-saving way. 

This one thing alone is worth hundreds of dollars to any- 
one who owns a large plant as I will prove to you further 
on. 

For your last round, just before sundown, give each 
.flock two quarts of cracked corn in their litter, to induce 
more exercise. Gather your eggs and close up your win- 
dows if cold. If weather is very warm leave your window 
and muslin curtain open or partly open in scratching part. 
You must use judgment in these things. 

A plant cared for this v.'ay during the winter should give 
you fifty to sixty per cent egg yield right through, providing 
your pullets are of a laying age and your old hens have pass- 
ed through their molt. 

You will see that I feed four times as much processed 
oats as I do any other kind of feed. Oats to a hen are what 
oats are to a horse. It gives them vigor and puts life in 
them, such as no other feed will do. 

If you follow these instructions to the letter, and use 
judgment in keeping your houses from getting too warm 
during the day, you will never fail to bring in a load of 
eggs every day in the year. 

Always empty your water jars at night on the last trip, 
so your hens will always be dry in the morning when you 
come around with the load of warm water. This is very 
important. 

If weather is very cold gather your eggs on your one 
o'clock trip if you are saving them for hatching. 




26 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

CHAPTER XI 
Processed Feeds and How to Produce Them 

The most wonderful feed knov/n at the present time is 
sprouted oats. They are positively one of the greatest egg 
producers ever discovered and something that will make 
eggs hatch any time of the year. What would a horse be 
worth without oats? But very little. They are the same 
to a hen. The main objection to oats for fowls is their very 
tough hull, which is very hard to digest, and for this reason 
alone many people will not feed them to hens. I have 
experimented very extensively with oats and have fed them 
for weeks boiled, with no results in eggs. They make a 
very good fattening feed M'hen boiled, but are of no value 
for eggs — simply put the hens out of laying condition. 
But when processed, hens eat them in preference to any- 
thing else. In fact, they will eat them when they will 
touch nothing else, while on the other hand, they are the 
last thing to be eaten by the hens in their natural dry 
state. 

To process them, take a pail of good, ordinary oats, 
same as a^ou feed your horses, cover them with water and 
let them soak five hours in sum.mer and ten hours in 
winter, then turn them into a larger pail, one that will 
hold double the amount. First bore a one-half inch hole 
in your pail before turning them in, so it will not hold 
water; leave them in this pail until they sprout thor- 
oughly and begin to germinate heat, which will be in three 
or four days if in a moderately warm place. Always keep 
them covered with an old bag and stir and sprinkle with 
water once daily. After they become a mass of roots turn 
into a box holding about five pails. The oats should not 
be over three or four inches thick in the box. This must 
also have a couple of one-half inch holes in bottom so water 
will quickly drain off after wetting them each day. 

They will grow very rapidly when they begin to sprout, 
and are at their best for feeding when sprouts are one inch 
to one and one-half inches long. One bushel will make four 
to five bushels if oats are good and grow as they should. 
Always keep oats covered with a heavy bag or old blanket 
to keep them warm, for they will grow much faster, and the 
sprouts will remain white and very crisp. By feeding when 
sprouts are only one-half to one inch long you not only 
get the full nutritive value of your oats, but they also take 



POULTRY RAISING 



27 



the place of green feed^ and there is nothing I know of 
which will start hens laying so quickly and will bring so 
many eggs during the year. 

Below is shown a series of bins which will be found very 
useful and handy for processing oats and other grains. I 
am here simply giving the principle or reason of preparing 
the feed. 



fROUGH 




<Serici Oj Bins 
For 6j3roi,.tiHC Oat'i And CirainS 




ILLUSTRATION SHOWING SERIES OF BINS FOR SPROUTING OATS AND GRAINS 



For growing young chicks there is nothing as good as 
sprouted oats. Give your little chicks all they will eat twice 
a day after they are a week old. They are at their best for 
little chicks when sprouts are one-half inch long. 

If possible always grow them in a cellar, but in warm 
weather they can be grown under open sheds, under trees or 
north side of buildings. They grow at their best in a tem- 
perature of 60 degrees. 

For a large plant where you must grow them in large 
quantities you will find a series of bins the best plan. A 
large butter tub may be used if desired. Fill tub three- 
fourth? full of grain and fill up with water and let them soak 
ten hours. If you soak two or three tubs at a time you can 
dump them all in one barrel, and leave them in this barrel 
until they sprout and begin to heat. They should be thor- 
oughly wet every day so long as they remain in the barrel, 



28 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



and as soon as they develop heat they must be dumped in 
boxes that have holes in bottom, say 3 to 5 inches thick. Wet 
and turn daily until ready for feeding. If they get too hot 
in boxes cool down with cold water and spread out thinner. 
To have them at their best you should start a lot every day 
and keep them fed up as fast as they get fit. You will soon 
learn just how many to start every day. A little salt distri- 
buted through them evenly when fed will greatly increase 
vour egg yield and keep your hens in the pink of condition — 
a teaspoonful of salt to a common pailful. As an experi- 
ment I kept two pens of Leghorns six months on processed 




SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE BRIGGS POULTRY PLANT 



oats, with beef scraps before them and with no other feed. 
They laid well all the time and went through the earliest 
molt of any hens on the plant, although I do not advise 
following this plan. If one has no cellar to grow their oats 
in, nor a warm place in winter, they can be grown then in 
an open shed or barn by piling up a foot or more of horse 
manure, setting your box on it and bank your box on all 
sides with horse manure. Put on a board cover and throw 
over this a blanket and you can easily grow them in this 
way during the coldest winter weather. You can grow 
them much quicker in winter by wetting them with warm 



POULTRY RAISING 29 

water, but in summer time they should be wet with cold 
water. 

Processed oats make a great feed for ducks. Remem- 
ber there is nothing that will grow chicks so fast as processed 
oats, and nothing so cheap. When they grow at their best 
they can be grown for fifteen cents per bushel or less. This 
feeding system alone is worth hundreds of dollars to any one 
with a big plant; and for small 3^arded plants it solves the 
green feed question entirely and will make any plant pay a 
profit. Leghorn pullets can be grown and be put to laying 
at four months of age on this feed. I have also done this 
-with White Rocks and White Wyandottes. Never soak 
oats over five hours in summer or in a warm cellar in winter 
where a heater is run, for if you do you destroy the sprout- 
ing qualities of the oats. 

Barley is the next best grain for processing, and will 
give nearly as good results. Wheat and buckwheat can also 
be processed in same manner with grand results. 

To prove that processed oats is a discovery that I made 
fifteen years ago and is the greatest discovery for poultrymen 
known you will find it has been copied by various poultry- 
men as their own discovery, but not until the first edition of 
my book was put on the market was it seen in the poultry 
journals or advertised by others. 

It is not too much to claim for my system of processing 
grains, as doj others who are successfully following my meth- 
ods, that it is the silo of the poultry world. 

The great trouble in sprouting oats in hot weather, and 
in many Southern States, is the formation of mold. This can 
be prevented by sterilizing the oats before putting them to 
soak. The sterilizing solution consists of one pint of forma- 
lin to thirty gallons of water. One gallon of solution is 
sufficient to sterilize one bushel of oats. It is a good plan 
to take thirty bushels of oats, spread out on the floor and 
sprinkle thirty gallons of the solution over them, slowly 
turning them in the meantime, until the liquid is all absorbed. 
The heap should then be covered with bags for twelve hours, 
allowing the solution to thoroughly disinfect the grain. 
Then spread the oats out and let them dry thoroughly, 
then place in bags that have been sterilized, and they are 
ready to process. They will keep for any length of time 
now, and grow in fine shape. 



30 



BRIGGS* SYSTEM OF 




POULTRY RAISING 3i 

CHAPTER XII 
Summer Care 

For the summer care of flocks, beg-inning about April 1, 
or as soon as the ground can be worked, take a strip of land 
along the end of your house, whichever end is most conven- 
ient, and plow a good-sized strip. If you have ten or twenty 
houses in a row, plow the whole length of them all, if you 
can. Now sow this strip liberally with oats, and if you can 
harrow this every morning so much the better, and sow lightly 
of oats, three times a week until the coming November. 
Do this all summer long, using a spring tooth harrow, and 
your hens will work in this ground for the sprouted grain 
continually. As this grain keeps sprouting and coming up all 
the time, you will have springtime for these hens from spring 
until November. If you follow this up the result in eggs 
will surprise you. The hen keeps right on laying all 
through the summer and fall, not even stopping when she is 
molting. I claim under these conditions a two hundred to 
two hundred and fifty egg hen can be a common thing. 
Flocks treated this way should average two hundred or more 
eggs each, for you see the hens feast on an abundance of 
worms and insects as well, and tliey will not consume more 
than half the quantity of beef scraps and other feeds when 
treated this way. 

In changing from winter to summer care, if your plant 
is laid out on a stream of water, as I have advised, you will 
have no watering to do, and just as soon as you get to plow- 
ing your ground you will not need to give as much beef 
scraps and give only one feeding a day of processed oats, aS 
your hens will get all the oats they can eat, started in their 
natural way in the ground. The worms and insects they 
now get will take the place of green cut bone, so that all the 
work you have to do during the summer is to cultivate this 
ground and keep sowing oats and at night hitch up your 
horse and give each flock of fowls about two quarts of 
cracked corn and gather the eggs. If you follow up this 
system strictly the hens will "keep at it" all during the molt- 
ing season. You must make your rounds every week during 
the summer and fill all your hoppers, one with beef scraps, 
and one with wheat screenings ; also grit, oyster shells and 
charcoal. These essentials must be kept before them winter 
and summer. Never let the hoppers get empty. When 



32 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 




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POULTRY RAISING 



33 



freezing weather comes in the fall you must change your 
plans at once if you want the egg yield to continue. Remem- 
ber this is how the profit comes in. Under no circumstances 
let your hens fall off on eggs. Start on your winter rations 
as I have outlined in a previous chapter, just as soon as 
the severe weather of November comes on. 




PRIZE Wl.NNl.NG BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK COCK 

During the summer your windows are to be left open 
day and night, also your door, providing your plant is en- 
closed with a wire netting fence such as I have described in 
opening; chapter of this book. 

You must remember another thing. If you let your 



34 r.RTGnS' SYSTEM OF 

fowls get knocked out in any way, througli carelessness, 
it will take three or four weeks to get them back again, and 
in the meantime you have lost a month's laying of eggs. So 
great care and judgTnent must be used. Sickness will scarce- 
ly be known if my instructions are faithfully followed. Your 
hens should always be in the pink of condition, and your eggs 
from January to September should run 90 per cent fertile and 
give wonderful hatches. I think you will agree with me 
that this is caring for fowls the nearest to nature's way and 
under the best system known at the present time. 

During dry weather of summer always give one feeding 
a day of processed oats with a little salt on, do not neglect 
the salt at any time of the Acar as it is very important for a 
large egg yield. 

CHAPTER XIII 

A Free Range Plant With Least Labor 

In this chapter. I will describe how to care for a free 
range plant with the smallest amoimt of labor with one 
helper. * 

First, make a feed hopper, such as T have described that 
will hold a bag of feed. You should have three of these. 
Fill one with wheat screenings, one Avith oats and one with 
cracked corn. Also a small hopper for beef scraps and a 
three-department hopper with grit, oyster shells and char- 
coal. If your plant is built on a stream of water and 
inclosed with a wire-netting fence, as I have already describ- 
ed, all the work vou have to do is to gather your eggs every 
night and send your man around once a week and fill all 
your hoppers. He should also spray carbolic acid and kero- 
sene, half and half, well mixed, on the roosts once during the 
winter, and once a month during the summer. In Septem- 
ber he should clean the houses out thoroughly and coat the 
floors over with new sand. Your hens will go to the creek 
to drink, and in winter, if ground is covered with snow, they 
will eat snoAv and will lay more eggs. The hole to let them 
out of the house should never be closed, day or night, winter 
or summer. In the winter time your windows have to be 
kept closed. Your hens will pay a fine profit under this sys- 
tem with practically no labor. You will not get a big egg 
yield during the winter, but you can depend on a profit of 
one dollar or more from each hen on this no-labor system. 
You will be surprised at the results. For a business man 
in the city, who owns a small place in the country and wishes 
to make some money at home, there is nothing I know of 



POULTRY RAISING 



35 



that will pay him so large a profit on the money invested 
as a poultry plant run in this manner. Of course, he would 
have to buy his breeders each season and the best way to 
do this is to sell off half of the stock during the early fall 
and replace them with pullets which can always be bought 




PRIZE WINNING WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK COCK — WINNER OK MANY 
FIRST PRIZES 



during September and October. Better birds for less money 
can be bought during these two months than at any other 
time of the year. One reason I specially advise Single-Comb 
White Leghorns in preference to any other breed, is becav.se 
one can always buy all they want at reasonable prices. 



3f; BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

I advise changing the breeding stock at end of second 
year's laying, as two years is all a hen can be relied upon to 
pay a good profit, and they should never be kept after this 
unless they are extra good ones that yon may want to use as 
breeders. 

CHAPTER XIV 
Caring for a Yarded Plant 

To handle a yarded plant for the greatest possible profit 
and for those who arc so unfortunate as to own one, for such 
plants seldom pay vmless it is used for breeding fancy stock. 
I have experimented for many months on yarded plants and 
I find that hens even over crowded in small runs will pro- 
duce more than double the eggs fed on the hopper system 
than they will fed the ordinary way. Just keep good quality 
Avheat screenings and beef scraps before them at all times and 
give a liberal feeding of processed oats in the morning — all 
they will eat and at 3 p. m., another feeding of processed oats, 
all they will eat. Remember you cannot over-feed on the pro- 
cessed oats, as they are light and quickly digested. At night 
in winter give a light feeding of cracked corn in litter and you 
will be surprised at the results. Your fowls will always be 
in the pink of condition and practically no sickness among 
them. Roup, colds and cholera will scarcely be known, even 
on the same plants that have always previously been over run 
with these various diseases where hot mashes were daily fed. 

Another valuable secret for a yarded plant, if your hens 
have long narrow yards, say 10 by 60 or more feet long, is 
how to keep green feed in their yards all summer. Spade up 
half of the yard, sow it to oats early in the spring and put 
in cross boards eight inches high, cover it over with one inch 
mesh wire netting, stretching it tight and stapling it firmly 
to the boards. As soon as the oats get a good start your 
hens will eat them through the wire netting and the oats will 
grow just as fast as your hens can eat them off. In this way 
they will be supplied with green feed all summer long. 1 
am satisfied a yarded plant can be made to pay, run in this 
manner. Cut your hot and cold mashes entirely out. Feed 
a yarded plant as follows : Keep a hop])er of wheat screen- 
ings, also one of beef scraps, always before them, as well as 
grit, oyster shells and charcoal. Give a feeding of processed 
oats in the morning, and at 2 p. m., another feeding of pro- 
cessed oats ; at night a light feeding of cracked corn in litter 
to induce exercise, and your fowls will keep in pink of con- 



POULTRY RATS INC 



37 



dition, lay well all winter long, and colds and roup will hard- 
ly be known if they are properly housed. They should be 
given warm water mornings in very cold weather, as they are 
always dry in the morning, and should not be allowed to have 
ice water. After they drink all they want of warm water in 




. ^^■- -^ . .. ~ . ^ ^^-•^►.A ■ 



. •.-.Jffr'-' -» * ■ --■^*.>1 



BI.ACK ORPINGTON, FIRST PRIZK, ALLEXTOWX, PA. 



the morning, the rest of the day they will drink but little at 
a time and cold water will not hurt them. If your houses 
have dropping boards you should clean the droppings off at 
least twice a week the year around. In houses I have 
described for a free-range plant your droppings go right on 



38 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

the ground, and it is not at all necessary to clean them out 
oftener than twice a year. So you can see the amount of 
labor saved. Give water with chill taken off only. 

CHAPTER XV 

How to Build an Ideal Incubator House 

1 have told you in my former cliapters how to produce 
eggs in the greatest possible numbers, eggs that will give 
you the largest hatches. You will now want to know how to 
hatch them. First, I will tell you how to build what I con- 
sider the most perfect incubator house or cellar. Select a 
side hill if you have one near by ; for a perfect incubator 
house should be part under and part above ground. You can 
determine the size of house needed by the number of ma- 
chines 3^ou want to use and the number of chicks you wish 
to hatch. But it is always safer to build much larger than 
your present needs, then you will not have to rebuild or en- 
large when your business grows. 

First, lay up a wall of stone five feet high on all four 
sides, putting in windows at the top of yoiu* wall, a four-pane 
window 8 by 10 glass will answer the purpose nicely. Hinge 
at bottom so they will open inside. 

Put windows in on each side and at south end. A win- 
dow every ten feet is about right. Now put a window in 
each end for ventilation. Put these windows near peak, a six 
light window, 8 by 10 glass, and in summer these can be left 
open for ventilation. This makes an ideal incubator house. 

Throw up dirt on top of v\^all on all sides, except south 
end and put in a double door here wide enough to carry out 
any incubator, set up. 

The air in such a house as this always smells free from 
lamp smoke. If you fail to get good hatches in such a house 
you will know that it is not the fault of the house. 

CHAPTER XVI 

How to Run an Incubator 

First, after setting up your machitie and starting your 
lamp, you must let up or release your regulator. Keep un- 
screwing it until temperature goes up to 102J/2 degrees. Re- 
meml)er the temperature cannot raise when your disk over 
the lamp is raised. When you get temperature to 102^ and 



POULTRY RAISING 



39 



your disk raised one-eight of an inch, or so it just clears, 
then your machine is ready for the eggs. 

Better run your machine twent^'-four hours after you get 
your temperature right before putting in the eggs. As soon 
as you put your eggs in your temperature will disappear; give 
your machine twenty-four hours to get back to 102^^ degrees. 
Regulate ventilation according to directions sent with the 
machine you use. 




FIRST PRIZE WHITE MINORCA HEN AT MADISON SOCARE, 
NEW YORK, SHOW. 

Change trays from side to side in the morning and from 
end to end at night in a two-tray machine, and turn the eggs 
at end of first day. After this turn twice a day until eight- 
eenth day. Turn last time at end of eighteenth day, but con- 
tinue to change your tray from side to side and end to end un- 
til you see the first pip. Handle your eggs very carefully 



40 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

from the eighteenth day on, using care not to jar them in 
changing trays. Remember animal heat begins to take place 
after the seventn day and the temperature will begin to work 
up and you should give the regulating nut part of a turn every 
time the temperature crawls up to 103, so as to keep it down 
as near 102^ as possible, if you are operating your machine 
in a room which registers above 65 degrees; if not over 40 
to 45 degrees, then keep your machine at 103 and do not air 
}our eggs. 

[n a room of 50 to 70 degrees begin airing your eggs on 
the fifth day and air each night, depending on temperature of 
room. 

A good airing for an hour or two on seventh day will 
much improve the hatch in warm weather. 

Give plenty of air during hot weather. 

Good, fresh eggs hatch much better than those kept two 
or three weeks. 

If you are hatching white eggs test them on the fifth day, 
and take out all clear eggs and dead germs 

If you are incubating brown-shelled eggs test them at 
the end of the seventh day, at which time you can test them 
nicely. I 

All eggs should be tested again at the end of the fifteenth 
day. Remove all dead eggs and if they do not show a good, 
fair-sized air cell you must give more ventilation, for a good 
hatch cannot be had without a good-sized air cell. 

After 3^ou see the first pip do not open your machine 
again under any circumstances until the hatch is practically 
through, say the morning of the tw^enty-first day for Leg- 
horns and at the end of twenty-first day for all large breeds. 

Leave chicks in incubator fully twenty-four hours after 
all are out. 

I have been experimenting for the past 20 years with in- 
cubators and have tried nearly all the leading makes running 
them side by side with eggs laid by same flocks of fowls 
and have given the moisture machines as well as the non- 
moisture machines ever}' chance by running them through 
several hatches during an entire season and the results in 
every case were in favor of the moisture machines, and I shall 
not use any other kind in the future. In some cases I have 
hatched every fertile egg with moisture machines. My av- 
erage hatches from 400 eggs set was 300 to 340 chicks and 
in many cases not a cripple or deformed one among them. 



t^OULTRY RATSINC 41 

CHAPTER XVII 
Chicks Raised Nature's Way 

Now comes the most difficult part of all, the business of 
raising- the chicks. Here is where nearly all fail except those 
using my System and Secrets. 

First of all to raise chicks successfully and raise the 
greatest number you must have a proper place to raise them 
in. To raise chickens in February and March you must of 
necessity have a house and for this purpose there is no cheap- 
er or better house than the colony house I will here describe 
which should be built exactly like my laying house only 
1-5 smaller. Use 16 foot plank, making the houses 8 feet 
wide and 16 feet long outside measure, four feet high at eaves 
same as the laying houses. For the roof saw a 16 foot board 
into three pieces and saw rafters 5 feet 1 inch long. Build 
it the same as the laying house dividing it in center with 2 
10 inch boards, and you will have an ideal house for raising- 
chicks in. Put windows and curtain opening the same size 
as you use in the laying houses, one in each side in center of 
each department. For the curtain opening make a frame 
out of a furring strip 1 inch by 2 inches and cover with mus- 
lin, no glass to be used. Have windows so they will slide open 
towards the door, also put a slide under each window for let- 
ting chicks out. In these houses place two of my indoor 
brooders such as I will give you plain instructions for build- 
ing in chapter XIX. You can place any number of these 
houses in a row from 5 to 10 putting them about 30 feet apart. 
Try to fill one row of houses with chicks as near the same age 
as possible. All should be hatched within 2 or 3 weeks of 
each other. You can put 150 to 200 chicks in each house. 

To raise chicks on a large scale, say from three to six 
thousand, you must keep some one among them all the time, 
if you do not want them all carried awa}' by hawks and 
crows and various other animals, as there is nothing that has 
so many enemies as young chicks. Hawks, crows, rats, wea- 
sels, cats, skunks, wood chncks in rare cases, raccoons and 
foxes are the worst. 

Select a nice, large orchard if possible for raising chicks 
if you have one ; if not you must arrange for artificial shade. 
About sixty feet in front of the row of houses put a one and 
one-half foot fence of one inch mesh wire netting ; then an- 
other row of houses about eight feet from this fence ; then 
another fence, same as the other. 



42 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

It makes no difference how many brooders you have in 
line, twenty could be handled all right if they were all filled 
with chicks at nearly the same time. 

Tt the field is nearly level they will equalize themselves 
all right in the brooders. 

You can safely put seventy-five to 100 chicks in each 
brooder and should have no trouble in raising 70 to 90 per 
cent, of them to maturity if you follow my instructions. 

For first feed I grind fine egg shells and feed these for 
fiist three days. You must see to it that. they are never out 
of feed again as long as you own them. Here is one of the 
great secrets of success, for if your chicks always have free 
access to feed, they will never overeat and die of indigestion. 
As soon as you put them out give them fine grit and fine 
charcoal, also water that is lukewarm, and the eggshells, and 
as I have said before, the next day set dry mash before them, 
and give a feeding of baby chick feed night and morning. 

On the third day also set beef scraps before them and see 
that tiiey are never without it. Begin feeding them process- 
ed oats on the seventh day. They will quickly take to it and 
eat off all the roots and sprouts, leaving nothing but thei 
hulls. Feed them all the processed oats they will eat from 
then on, once a day. Do not be afraid, for they cannot over- 
eat of it. 

From the seventh day on, your chicks must have always 
before them water, grit, charcoal and beef scraps ; and do 
not forget the oats. I generally set a panful in the pen 
first thing in the morning and again at noon, dumping out 
the hulls every time. It is a pleasure to raise chickens this 
way as sickness and disease is scarcely known. 

After three weeks add a good quality of wheat screen- 
ings to the rations, which must also be kept before them 
from then on as long as you own them. I know of nothing 
that can in any way compare with it for growing young 
chicks, and nothing so cheap as screenings and processed 
oats. If you cannot get good screenings use wheat. 

Good, clean, fresh water is very important — in fact, thou- 
sands of chickens are lost every year through dirty water 
and filthy drinking dishes, as disease starts in the drinking 
fountains in many cases. 

If your fountains are not kept clean, and if you are not 
particular and wash out your fountains every time you fill 
them, slime collects on the inside, and this is rank poison to 
the chickens. 



]POULTRY RAISING 43 

The best fountain you can get is the two-piece earthen 
fountain, which keeps the water cool and clean. If you can 
yard your little chicks on a stream of water, so much the 
better, as much labor is thus saved. 

Keep your brooder at 95 degrees first five days, then it 
should be lowered to 90 degrees, after two weeks to 85 de- 
grees, and after three weeks to 80 degrees gradually reducing' 
the temperature and harden them off, depending on the sea- 
son of the year and the weather. Here is where common 
sense and judgment counts. Give your chicks heat just as 
long as they need it if you wish to attain the most rapid 
growth, and rugged birds of extra good size, such birds, as 
a rule are never sick. 

I will give you the secret of success in raising chicks 
and getting them beyond the danger period, especially Leg- 
horns, that are from twenty to forty days old. Nature's 
way is the secret. 

In front of my colony houses used for brooders, sa}' six 
feet I plow a good, big strip the entire length of theiu all. 
I do this the day the chickens begin to hatch, and sow this 
strip lightly with oats. By the time the chicks come out 
of their brooders the oats are nicely sprouted. I let the 
chicks out of the colony brooders the seventh day about 10 
a. m., if the weather is nice. The next day T run the harrow 
over the ground and sow more oats. Every day after this 
I harrow this ground, sowing more oats every day. The re- 
sult — the chicks keep at work from morning" until night and 
never get time to become sick. 

I consider this the only good or perfect way to raise 
chicks, at least about the only successful way. Pullets raised 
this way should lay at four or five months of age. 

As soon as the chicks reach a weight of two pounds each 
or near this weight, the cockerels should be marketed — ex- 
cept those you desire to retain for breeders — these should be 
separated from the pullets in order to mature them in best 
shape. 

Bear in mind the most critical time in a chick's life is 
between tv/enty and forty days old. During this period they 
must not be neglected, as they begin to grow rapidly at this 
age, and if stunted they never recover. 

You should sow more liberally of oats at this time, and 
do not neglect the harrowing; it takes but a short time each 
day and is very essential that it should be done with regu- 
larity. ; , 



44 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Continue to give your chicks all the processed oats they 
will take at this time. 

In order to economize and save labor, as soon as the 
chicks are large enough to leave the brooder you can move 
your pullets to the laying houses; that is, pullets that you 
want to keep for your own laying and breeding stock to take 
the place of your yearlings. 

A convenient way to replace a flock of old hens with 
pullets is to just put up a lean-to on the back end of your 
laying houses — sa}' 6 by 6 feet square would answer every 
purpose. This can be put up with a single pitch roof and a 
wire netting front. Put some low roosts in this lean-to and 
shut in about sixty of your finest, largest pullets for three 
days, then you can let them run witli the hens. 

Feed pullets in their own department in an open trough, 
continuing same course of feeding which has already been 
begun. 

When you sell your old hens just shut chicks out of their 
temporary department and they will go right in the main 
house and never have to be taught. When they start to 
laying, they will keep right at it, and you will thus gain a 
full month's eggs, as changmg after they have reached the 
laying age always stops them. 

This lean-to is also very handy for shutting up setting 
hens and various other purposes. 

To go back to the young chicks again, when your chicks 
are large enough to think of roosting, and need heat no more 
you should market the cockerels for squab broilers, if possi- 
!)le, at eight to ten weeks old, and remove j^our pullets to 
the laying houses. Your brooders are then ready for another 
batch of later chicks which can be allowed to grow up in 
these houses in the same manner as the first batch. 

You will find these houses very handy for wintering sur- 
plus cockerels and pullets in. It is always nice to have some 
surplus birds on hand. 

I think I have made things plain, and if you will follow 
my instructions you will have no trouble in raising your 
chicks, providing your eggs are produced under my method 
of feeding, from healthy stock. 




i.-:^*'- 



POULTRY RAISING 45 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Hatching Baby Chicks For Market 

Hatching and selling baby, or day-old chicks, is the most 
profitable part of the poultry business, the one that can do 
much towards putting your plant on a paying basis if you 
have not been making as much profit as you expected. 

The day-old chick business requires more capital than 
any other branch of the business, and, just like any other 
business, the more capital the more profit, providing you 
have success ; and in order to be reasonably sure of success 
you should put in Single Comb White Leghorns, and house 
and care for them under my free range system. By instal- 
ling first class incubators and using a liberal amount of ad- 
vertising you cannot fail to make money from the start. 

I marketed nearly $6000 worth of chicks last year, and 
nearly $4000 worth of egjgs for hatching, from hardly 2000 
layers on my own plant and from 2000 layers on outside 
plants, under my ownership and supervision, during March 
and April and a part of May. 

The prevailing price for baby chicks is ?10.00 per 100 
from small plants and those not generallj'- known in the 
poultry world, while many of the large plants get from .$16.00 
to $20. per 100 for Leghorn baby chicks. T get $12. per 100 
during March, April and up to May 15th, then $10.00 to July 
1st, and $9. per 100 during July and August, but my stock 
is far above the average in quality and laying capacity, and 
I aim to have it better every 3^ear. 

To give you a little idea of what it costs to start in 
the baby chick business I Avould say for the first year equip 
yourself so as to be able to hatch 1000 chicks each week. 
This would mean that you would have to keep 500 laying 
hens, which would give you a surplus of eggs- You would 
want four 400-egg size incubators to hatch weekly. This 
would mean twelve 400-egg machines, which you should be 
able to buy for about $400.00 or a little more. 

Then comes your incubator house at a cost of $200.00 
to $400.00 or more, depending on how large you build it. Do 
not make the mistake of building a .small house for present 
needs. Better build it three times larger than your present 
needs require, for once you get fairly started in the baby 
chick business, and find how profitable it is, you will want 
to increase it from year to year. 

Chicks can be safely shipped when 12 to 24 hours old, 
and will stand a three days Journey very well indeed. For 



46 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



sliippinpf them you will find nothing- finer for packing- tlicni 
in than the corrugated paper chick boxes made in three 
sizes, 25, 50 and 100 chick capacity. 

If you keep pure bred Single Gomb White Leghorns 
only, and keep them under my free range system, and incu- 
bate them in first class machines, you should hatch 280 to 
320 chicks from every 400 eggs set. 

Great judgment must be used in packing these chicks 
for shipment. You will have to vary your ventilation in 
the boxes according to the weather. In a 100-chick box 
that has four compartments I put two holes in each compart- 
ment for March shipments. I use a wad cutter for this 
which cuts out one-half inch holes, and as the weather grows 
warmer I increase the number of holes. In hot weather 1 
put in a large number of holes, and also put holes in the lid 
over each compartment. I also nail two wooden strips on 
the lid of each box. one inch thick, so when boxes are piled 
on top of one another there is an inch space between them. 
In this way the chicks cannot get over-heated. A box of 
100 chicks throws oft' a large amount of animal heat. 

CHAPTER XIX 
A Perfect Brooder 




II.Ll^STKATIO.N OF BKOODKK HOVER COMPLETE 

I Will here describe the most perfect brooder I have ever 
used — one that is used exclusively on my plant. If you are 
handy with tools you can make these brooders very easily 
and at a small expense for materials. For the body of these 
brooders use a board 12 in. wide of hemlock or pine, saw two 
pieces three feet long and two pieces two feet eight inches 
long, nail these together at ends and you have a box just three 



POULTRY RAISING 



47 



feet square. On top of this box nail a sheet of galvanized 
iron 3 feet square and around the edge on top of the galvan- 
ized iron on each side nail flatwise a furring strip 1 by 2, and 
3 feet long. Now^, saw two more pieces two feet ten inches 
long to nail inside of these two pieces. First saw a ^ inch 
piece out of each end of these two pieces and nail between 
your three feet pieces with your JX inch cut down, now you 
are ready for your floor which must be made out of tongued 
and grooved white pine boards good and dry so it will not 
shrink. In the center of this floor saw a round hole so a two 
quart tin basin will just nail over and around it with bottom. 



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ILLUSTRATION OF ONE-HALF OF BROODER — FROM THE CENTER TO THE HACK. 
SHOWING MANNER OF CONSTRUCTION, APPLICATION OF HEAT, ETC. 



Nail around the flanges at the bottom of the tin basin. Punch 
side full of holes with a punch to let fresh air and heat out 
among the chicks. On top of the basin as inverted, fasten 
the round block you sawed out of the floor. This must be 
done before basin is nailed on brooder. This block keeps 
your chicks from getting killed when the hover is raised or 
removed and let down again, also keeps the chicks from set- 
ting upon the heat drum. In body of brooder you must saw 
out an opening in center 9 by 10 inches- This opening is to 
put lamps in. Now make a slide for this opening and near 
the top make 3 holes about two inches apart 3-4 inch in size. 
Near the bottom also make two three-fourths inch holes. 
These holes are to provide air for the lamps. The holes must 
always be kept open or the lamps will not burn. You will 
now make your hover and this must be made of tongued and 



48 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



grooved white pine and should be inside twenty-four inches 
sc|uare. Around the edge put a strip of cheap cloth yet sub- 
stantial, six inches wide; slit this with a pair of shears. This 
strip of cloth should go twice around. Slit it so chicks can 
go out and under it at each corner. Put a leg" six inches 
long of one-half inch stuff three inches wide where you nail 
to brooder and bring it down to Yz inch wide where it sets on 
top of floor of brooder. This hover sets right over the tin 

ILLUSTRATION OF BROODER COMPLKTK EXCEPT HOVER 




SHOWING POSITION OV VE.NTILATOR OR FRESH AIR OPENING ON THE LEFT SIDE 
A SI.\HLAR OPENING IS ALSO PROVIDED FOR ON THE RIGHT SIDE 

basin. T always set these brooders in the corner of the house 
described in former chapter. This forms two sides and as 
the lamp door is always toward you, T first nail a ten inch 
board along this edge of brooder opposite from the side of 
the house. This keeps the chicks from falling off; and on 
the lamp side and in front I put up a ten inch board and set 
this loose in a pair of cleats at each end so it can be easily 
removed as this is where the chicks are let out of the brooder 
down on the ground when five days old. To arrange for the 
chicks to get from the brooder to the ground, a distance of 
twelve inches I first put some dirt in front of brooder giving 
it a nice slope then I cover this with grass sods. These 
sods keep the chicks from scratching the dirt away and once 
fixed in the spring they generally last an entire season. 

I consider this brooder far superior to any other I have 



POULTRY RAISING 



49 



used as you cannot overheat the chicks and no danger of 
chilling- so long- as your lamps are burning'. I never use a 
thermometer in these brooders any time of the year. I put 
from 75 to 100 chicks in each brooder using two brooders to 
a colony house and have never lost even five per cent, of 
chicks put in and often raise every chick. I find for lamps 
it is best to let a tinsmith make you a lamp out of galvanized 
iron that will hold about three quarts of oil. Make these 
lamps rather low and large around. Use a large sized zenith 
1)urner which is a ])urner needing no chimney. Run a low 
flame just so you can see it over the cone. Use two lamps 
under each brooder and fill them only once a week, but trim 
every day if your oil is poor. 




.\ TRIO OF PKIZK WIXXI.NO S. C. WUITK l.KGHOKNS 



CHAPTER XX 



Raising Broilers — Bowel Trouble, Its Cause and Cure 



This chapter is written expressly for broiler men and 
those who keep their hens mainly on wet mashes. 

The failures in this branch led me to experimenting and 
I have carried on a series of careful experiments for several 
years until I have now fully satisfied myself that bowel 
trouble commonly known today as White Diarrhoea is a germ 
disease and the weaker your chick the quicker it will attack 
it. Now the next thing was to find something that would 
kill the germ and at last I have found it in what is known as 



50 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 




POULTRY RAISING 51 

Crel on. I spray my brooders thoroughly with it and cover 
lightly with wheat bran before putting chicks in, spraying 
once a week with it until the chicks are five weeks old and 
feed as follows : From the start put a small box of dry mash 
before them as described in my Poultry Secrets in the supple- 
ment to this book. I also give a light feeding of chick grain 
twice daily, keeping fresh water, grit and charcoal before 
them and in some cases I have raised every chick put out. 
All chicks intended for broilers hatched after May 1st should 
have sweet milk to drink for three or five weeks, as this will* 
grow them very rapidly and put them right through the crit- 
ical period Avith scarcely any loss. I am now speaking 
more particularly of broiler raising. 

If you want healthy, rugged birds, free from disease, 
never feed them a Avet mash. 

The cheapest way to feed and have healthy, rugged 
breeding birds free from disease at all times to raise broilers 
from is as I have told you, except in place of a light mash 
at 9 a. m., give your hens a good feeding of processed oats. 
If you produce eggs in this way, from yearling hens mated 
with fully developed cockerels, not less than ten months old, 
you can raise practically every chick you hatch, even if a 
piped brooder-house is used providing yon can keep the tem- 
perature anywhere from 80 to 9S degrees. This is a big 
variation ; but strong, healthy chicks will stand a lot and not 
get sick. Once they get sick this is tlie last of them, for 
they will die about as fast you can hatch them. 

Most breeders, who are in the fancy stock business, use 
hens for hatching and brooding them. They get their 
neighbors to hatch and raise them, for they cannot hatchi 
them and raise them with incubators and brooders, simply 
because their brooders are fed on wet mashes, so as to get to 
big price, are usuallv hatched by old hens, and raised by them 
on free-range, which will pull them through if anything will.. 

Under my system of feeding, eggs laid in January will 
ritn 90 per cent, fertile, and I have hatched as high as 93 3-4 
per cent, of fertile eggs. 

You can see at a glance why so many who have tried 
the broiler business as a business have failed. T defy any 
one to find a profitable broiler plant, but T am satisfied this 
branch can be made pay under my system of feeding and 
in no other way. 

I want to say to broiler men, who have piped brooder 
houses, give them one more trial Avith eggs produced under 
my system of feeding. 



52 BR [GO'S SYSTEM OF 

From January until Ji.ine you can hatch and raise broil- 
.ers at a splendid profit under this system, for you can grow 
your later hatches up and make roasters of them at a grand 
profit. Under my system of feeding- your birds will grow 
very rapidly and develop fully one-third quicker than if fed 
the old way, stuffed with wet mashes. If fed the old way 
you will lose a large number with colds and roup, and have 
but few well chickens to sell. 

Just a word about growing roasters. Either good wheat 
screenings or wheat of some description must be kept before 
them all the time; also first-class beef scrap, grit, charcoal, 
and good fresh Avater and never let them get out of dry mash. 
They should have one good feeding of processed oats about 
9 a. m. — all they will eat. At night give all the cracked corn 
thev will eat and you v.'ill grow roasters that \v\\\ be a credit 
to 3"OU, and sickness among them will scarcely be known, 
and your profit will correspondingly surprise you. 

However, you will find it to your advantage to market 
chicks as broilers as long as they liring 25 cents a pound 
and more. , 

A pan of corn meal, set where the chicks can eat all they 
Avant of it, a week or two before marketing them will fatten 
them nicely. Do not wet it. but let them eat it dry. 

Under these conditions only can l)roilers be made to pay 
a profit. You can raise them, well into the summer on the 
free-range system of cultivating the ground. Just as soon 
as vou fail to raise 80 per cent, of your hatch you had better 
stop and sell 3''Our eggs. 

For late chicks give " Eittlc "Red Hen Foultry Tonic" 
in their drinking water. Tin's will kcc]i tlicm in the pink of 
condition and sliould alwa}'s be used when chicks do not 
do well. 

CHAPTER XXI 

Colds and Roup 

Of all the diseases that poultrymen have to contend with 
there is none so prevalent as colds and roup and they are 
therefore the most dreaded. Owing to the very sudden 
changes of weather in nearly all parts of our country colds 
and roup seem to grow more prevalent each season. The 
most dangerous form of roup is canker accompanied with 
swelled eyes which fill with a white cheesy substance mean- 
ing a blind eve in nearly every case. This particular disease 



I^OULTRY RAISING 5a 

is very contagious therefore a ciiicken that has a sore eye 
should be removed at once from the flock and in many cases 
it is the wise thing to kill and bury or burn the first case of 
this kind. The treatment should begin at the time they are 
hatched for this is a germ disease. Spray your brooders with 
Orel Oil before you put hatch in and spray once or twice a 
week thereafter, as long as chicks are in brooder. Their 
quarters after this should be sprayed twice a month until 
fully grown and once a month when grown. All chicks 
hatched in March and April should never get a cold or trace 
of roup treated this way unless you are breeding from old 
stock that have had it ; or unless your chicks are in very 
damp quarters or roost in drafts. This Crel Oil also kills 
all lice and mites. Colds and roup often get a start from 
mites during hot weather of summer. Mites multiply very 
fast in hot weather and they so weaken the chick that in their 
weakened condition they take cold very easily. If roup gets 
a good start spray every night with Crel Oil and put Yi tea- 
spoonful of this to 1 gallon in their drinking water. This 
will cure the worst cases in a short time. Many a plant 
has been put out of business by roup, so let me warn you to 
watch your birds closely and do not let it get a start. Late 
hatched chicks are very susceptible to this disease and, there- 
fore, require close watching. 

CHAPTER XXII 

Caring for a Plant where Wheat or Screenings 
Cannot be Bought 

I want to lay down here a system of feeding for those 
who live in sections of the country where wheat screenings 
cannot be bought and where wheat is so high it cannot be 
used at a profit and where oats are so scarce and higli in 
price that they cannot be used. In places of this kind I ad- 
vise hopper feeding of dry mash entirely. This should be 
made up of the various ground grains that you can get the 
cheapest, using 1-4 to 1-3 wheat bran if it can be had. You 
will have to use your own judgment as a rule in the making 
of this mash. I would not hopper feed any kind of whole 
grain but feed this rather in the litter mornings. Barley or 
buckwheat or Kaffir corn, whichever is cheapest, is good. At 
night feed corn ; also if possible keep beef scraps before them 
at all times. You are bound to get a big ^%% yield under 
such a system of feeding, especiall}^ if you can process some 



54 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

kind of grain, if not oats, try barley or buckwheat or Kafifir 
corn. If you can get a grain to process, feed this processed 
grain once a day with a little salt on and if youi have a plenty 
of it feed it twice daily. Remember the oats is the best of all 
grains if you can get it. This system is especially adapted 
for those who live in some parts of California as well as Flor- 
ida and other remote Southern points. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

When and How to Start in the Poultry Business 

Now comes the important consideration, when to start, 
and how. In either case you should start in the fall, especial- 
ly if you wish to start on a large scale, for your buildings 
should be put up in the fall even if you start by buying eggs 
and plan to raise your own breeders. This is by far the 
cheapest way to start if you do not have much capital. Get 
your incubator house ready in the fall, providing you have 
not a house cellar, which will answer the purpose temporarily. 

You can arrange for your brooders in the spring, but 
cannot start so early as where you have a brooder-house as 
out of door brooders will be necessary in this case, which 
cost more. Regular out-door brooders can be used out of 
doors very early in the spring any time after March 1st, as a 
rule. Pullets hatched the middle of March should lay in Aug. 
under my system of feeding, and keep right at it from then 
on. All the eggs desired can be purchased from reliable! part- 
ies of either Single-Comb White Leghorns or White Wyan- 
dottes, produced under my system of feeding at $5. or $6. per 
one hundred in any quantity On short notice — eggs that will 
run 90 per cent fertile right in January. For those who are 
well fixed, financially, I advise starting in the fall. To such 
I advise putting up the laying-Iiouses during July andAugust 
buying pullets as early as possible during the fall. October 
and November are usually the two best months as they can 
be bought cheaper than at any other time of the year. 

You should have no trouble to buy all the pullets and 
yearling hens you want, particularly Single-Comb \\'hite 
Leghorns during these two months at v$l. to $1.50 each. This 
is a very satisfactory way to start, but not so cheap as buy- 
ing the eggs and raising your own stock. 

Avoid buying eggs of a breeder who feeds mash if you 
wish to get good hatches and produce chicks that will live, 
because when an entirely inexperienced man tries to raise 
them they must be from hardy stock. 



POULTRY RAISING 55 

You do not have to wait many months for profit when 
you buy eggs to start with, as you can market your cockerels 
for broilers at a profit. In three months from the time you 
set your machines you can count on quite an income, so all 
things considered, with the experience you get, I advise start- 
ing in the spring by buying your eggs and raising your own 
breeders. 

Your chicks can be raised very cheaply under my new 




S6 BRIGG'S SYSTEM OI^" 

system, giving' them all the processed oats they will eat twice 
a day, in connection with a good chick food kept before theni 
all tlie time, as well as grit, charcoal, and beef scraps. 

Your brooders should be cleaned out at least once a week 
which I find answers every purpose. Also keep your brooder 
part of the house, where chicks are fed, covered with cut 
clover, they eat much of this, and it is very beneficial to them. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

A Leghorn Plant for Profit 

I will tell you here what a Combination Leghorn Plant 
can be made to do, and how to run such a plant for the great- 
est possible profit. 

First of all your great aim must be the production of eggs 
and for at least six months in the year you must feed to pro- 
duce not only eggs that will hatch but produce eggs that will 
hatch chickens that will live. If you feed properly and ad- 
vertise eggs for hatching, actually producing fertile eggs that 
will hatch strong, healthy chicks, that will live if given half 
a chance, offering to replace all clear eggs free if returned, ex- 
press prepaid, I am positive a man with three thousand layers 
can clear from $8,000 to $10,000 a year, providing he feeds 
them on my free range system. 

You should sell vour eggs during the hatching season for 
$6.00 per 100, or $50. per 1000. Possibly you could make 
more money by selling them for $5. per 100 in any quantity 
making no reduction for quantity. $5. per 100 is the popular 
price for good hatching eggs in this country. There is a 
grand profit in it at this price when you produce them in such 
large numbers at so small a cost. 

You must not feed a bit of wet mash. I will lay down 
here the ideal way to feed for fertile eggs at a small cost 
either a yarded or free-range plant for Leghorns only. 

Beginning in December, the first thing in the morning 
as soon as it is light, give your hens a light feeding of buck- 
wheat or barley in the litter; about lJ/2 quarts for 60 or 75 
is plenty. Give warm water to drink as early as convenient, 
and at 9 a. m. give each flock all the processed oats they will 
eat. At 1 p. m., give your flock more water, or put in warm 
water with what they have. 

About 3 p. m- give another feeding of processed oats, all 
they will eat. Remember, these only cost 10 to 15c a bushel. 

Before d.'irk give not over 1 to 1^ quarts of cracked 



POULTRY RAISING o7 

corn to a flock, and gather your eggs. If it is very cold 
weather, you will also have to gather your eggs on your 1 
o'clock trip. , , 

These birds must have always before them grit, oyster 
shells, and charcoal. Also a hopper of beef scraps and one 
of wheat screenings or wheat, and one of dry mash. 

Just a word about mating up your breeders to produce 
chickens that should be healthy. 

Mate all your yearling hens with cockerels not less than 
ten months old. Put these birds on free-range system, and 
feed as I have heretofore directed. 

Pullets hatched in February and March, mated to good 
vigorous yearling cocks, will also produce chickens that are 
very hardy and you should have no trouble in raising 90 to 
95 per cent of these chicks. 

Under no circumstances use anything but a Single-Comb 
White Leghorn for the greatest profit, because they lay 
the largest egg, and are by far the most popular of the Leg- 
horn family. 

To dispose of your breeders to tlie best advantage during 
August and September, you should make a great clearance 
sale at $1 each. You will have no trouble in disposing of all 
surplus stock at this price, and you will find this far prefer- 
able to putting them in the rnarket. 

Care for your plant during the summer as I have in- 
structed for summer care and feeding in another chapter. 

I advise four cocks or cockerels for every sixty to sev- 
enty-five layers. These birds should be so mated that there 
will be no fighting among them, and no " boss," as a rule. 

After the breeding season is over, say July, you should 
remove nearly all your male birds and make one flock of them 
except a few pens, which it would be well to keep mated the 
season through, so you can always fill a stray order for 
hatching eggs- 

Your cockerels should also be separated from the pullets 
and placed in one large flock, or several flocks of one hundred 
or so in a flock. In this way the male birds run together 
very peaceably and rarely ever fight, and you rarely ever see 
a " boss " among them. 

In mating these up, just take out of the bunch as many 
as you want for a flock of females, all at once, and let them 
go. You will then have no fighting, and very seldom even 
a " boss." This is the only way to mate up your birds for 
the best possible results. 



58 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



Never keep a brass}'" male bird. Have nothing but pure 
white birds on your place, as you will find your profits can 
be greatly increased by gradually breeding into fancy birds. 

Show a few at your fall fairs or local shows. Get a 
Standard and study it. By careful selection you can soon 
have a plant of very fine birds. 

Advertise your stock in one or more of the leading poul- 
try journals and keep your advertisement regularly before 
the public. 

Do not trv to show at the bip' shows, such as Madison 




A I'AIR (IF I'KIZK \VINM.\(. Sil.VHK LACl.D WVANUolTs. 

Square Garden, or Boston at first, for it takes years to win 
at such shows as these. 

If the houses. I have given you the plans for in this book 
are not warm enough for your location, you can build them 
six feet at the eaves instead of four by using a twelve-foot 
board sawed in half. Put a loft-floor in at the eaves and fill 
the top with straw. Do not put on a tight loft-floor; a floor 
of poles would work all right. You should also line the sides 
in the same way, and you will have a very warm house, 
where you could get eggs in any kind of weather. 



POULTRY RATSING 59 

I want to say right here that I-eghorn plants are the only 
ones up to the present time that have made money in a 
market wa}'-- Eggs for market, at market prices, have made 
many of them rich. 

All who have tried the larger breeds, have failed at it in 
a market way, so they have all had to go into the fancy, or 
give it up entirel3^ 

CHAPTER XXV 
A White Wyandotte Plant for Profit 

I have bred White W3'andottes all my life, or up to the 
Fall of 1910, when I sold my entire flock, that is for the 
past eighteen years and exhibited them every year. 1 have 
seen them lead all the large breeds in popularity, and the 
demand for them increases yearly. I know of no variety 
among the large fowls that it is such hard work to get good 
fertile eggs from that will hatch strong chicks, that are bound 
to live, as it is from the Wliite Wyandotte that have been 
bred for exhibition purposes in yarded plants. 

In breeding exhibition stock every trace of creaminess 
or brassiness had to be bred out of them, and their vigor or 
vitality has gone with it to a large extent. 

Inbreeding has done much to injure the vitality of this 
breed. 

My aim here is to tell you how to feed and care for White 
Wyandottes so you can get them hardy and full of vigor 
without breeding out their tine qualities — and this can be 
done by feeding" alone. 

I have experimented very carefully along this line and 
I find all large breeds should be fed quite different from the 
small breds. 

First of all they should never eat corn in any form — that 
is, the breeding stock. If any corn is fed it must be in very 
limited quantities. 

I find they will stand the hopper feeding and give grand 
results. In fact, this is the only natural way of feeding any 
fowl, and the only safe way of feeding. 

First of all provide a hopper of beef scrap, dry mash and 
wheat screenings ; also grit, oyster shells, and charcoal. The 
first thing in the morning give a light feeding of barley or 
buckwheat in litter to induce all the exercise you can- 

At 9 a. m. give all the processed oats they will eat. 



eO BklGG'S SYSTEM OF 

At 3 p. m. all the processed oats they will eat again. 

At 4 p. m. or later, according to the time of year, another 
feeding of oats, unprocessed. This should be fed to all large 
breeds in place of cracked corn 

Always use clipped oats, and feed in the litter, and you 
will not only get an abundance of eggs, but eggs that will 
hatch strong healthy chicks that will live. Such eggs will 
run from 80 to 90 per cent, fertile right in the winter months. 

I am not guessing at this, for I arn doing it right in 
February. 

Do not be afraid of the processed- oats, but give all they 
will possibly eat for they are very light and it is impossible 
to over-feed on them. There is nothing I have ever tried 
that will make hens lay equal to them, and nothing so cheap. 
It costs only about half to feed this way- 

You can always sell any amount of eggs for hatching at 
$5 per one hundred from Wyandottes. 

I am positive you could sell all a three thousand laying- 
plant can produce for hatching by a liberal amount of adver- 
tising along the same lines as I told you how to advertise 
Leghorn eggs. 

You can sell a large quantity of breeders for good prices, 
if you start with fairly good stock and exhibit at the small 
shows on the start. 

One thing you have to contend with on a Wyandotte 
plant, that you do n(it have to contend with on a Leghorn 
plant, that is setters. Tliis means quite some work, but 
you will not have nearly the amount of setters on a plant fed 
as I have directed. 

To properly break up a setter, they should not be allow- 
ed to remain on the nest the first night, and as a rule three 
days will break them up. Or, if you want to break a setter 
up in twenty-four . hours, just put her with a bunch of sur- 
plus cockerels, where a roost is handy and your hen will not 
think of setting. 

There is no breed at the present time more handsome 
than the White Wyandotte, when bred for show purposes, 
and no fowl that makes so fine a broiler and roaster when 
they are grown up healthy and rugged, that is, nature's way, 
and this can be done easily on the feeding I have outlined for 
my free-range system. You can get eggs right in January 
that will run from 80 to 90 per cent, fertile and give you 
grand hatches of strong, rugged chicks that can be easily 
raised in the winter — and you will have no trouble at all to 



POULTRY RAISING 



61 



dispose of hundreds of laying pullets during September, 
October and November at $2 each. There is a grand profit 
raising at this price, when you can raise 90 per cent, and 
more of all the chicks you hatch, and raise them largely on a 
feed that costs you only 10 to 15 cents a bushel. You can 
easily see what a profit you can make by running a large 
plant of White Wyandottes my way. 




TYPICAL HEADS OF ^tALE AND FEMALE WHITE WYANDOTTES 



Smallness of your feed bills will surprise you. 

I am positive v$8,000 a year can be easily made from a 
plant of three thousand White W5'-andotte layers, and even 
more when you work into high-class show birds and get $3 
to $5 a setting for many of your eggs. 

Sell high-class birds from $10 each up to as high as $100 
It can be done by pluck and perseverance. 



B2 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

A White Wyandotte plant of three thousand layers will 
turn in a greater profit than the same number of any other 
breed fed and run my way, which is nature's way, providing 
it is handled by a White Wyandotte fancier who thoroughly 
knows the value of his birds. 

The system that has been described above for the care 
and feeding of White Wyandottes will be found to be corre- 
spondingly practicable for other large breeds of fowls, and 
should be followed with the same accuracy. 

CHAPTER XXVI 

A Combination Plant for Profit — Fruit, Poultry and Bees 

I feel that I must Avrite a chapter on a combined plant 
for the benefit of those who want to go in either on a small 
or large scale, combining poultry, fruit and bees- 
There is no combination that I know of, that is more 
profitable, and at the same time will give so much pleasure 
in various ways than this. First of all. every poultry plant 
should be well set out to fruit. This is one of the very first 
things you should do to provide your poultry with shade and 
a peach tree is one of the best fruit trees for poultrymen, as it 
gives the quickest shade and the fruit always finds ready 
sale at good prices. Then the plum and the apple, cherry, 
pears, and grapes come next in value. You are bound to 
get an immense crop of fruit where you cultivate your 
ground, and use your poultry manure around your trees. 
You should plant liberally of all kinds of fruit, and you will 
find life worth the living. 

You want bees to fertilize your blossoms, so you will get 
large crops of fruit, and bees for the hone}'- are very profitable 
and afford a great amount of pleasure. They often turn in a 
greater amount of profit, time and capital taken into consid- 
eration, than anything T know of. T have cleared as high as 
$25 from a single hive in a season with but little labor. You 
need to give them no attention to speak of from October 1 to 
May 1. For onlv two months. May and June, do they need 
any great amount of attention. 

I advise every one Avho keeps poultry to have a combined 
plant — poultry, fruit and bees. 

There will be years when vour profit from fruit alone 
will not onlv give you a good living, but will give you a good, 
fat bank account as well as furnishing the family what fruit is 
needed. Think of eating peaches for instance from the 1st 



POULTRY RAISING 63 

of July until November, it makes ones mouth water. This 
can be done, if you will plant several kinds from the earliest 
to the latest. You can also have all kinds of apples, plums, 
cherries, and other fruit in the same way, grown at no ex- 
pense, on your poultry farm and one should enjoy life under 
such circumstances 

CHAPTER XXVII 

Loss of Breeders during Heavy Laying Season 

I want to devote a little time to the discussion under this 
head of the matter of heavy loss of hens during the heavy 
laying- season, during March, April and May principally. This 
applies largely to Leghorns as they are the phenomenal layers 
during these three months and the loss of birds from heavy 
laying is usually very heavy. The Rhode Island Experiment 
Station lost nearly 34% of their Leghorns in one year. This 
information will surprise and startle many, but all poultry- 
men who keep stock in large numbers knoAV the loss is very 
heavy. This great loss is caused by such heavy laying as to 
weaken the bird. They droop two or three days and die. I 
have been making a study of this trouble in order to find out 
how to avoid the loss and from careful experimenting I am 
now satisfied beyond a doubt that this trouble primarily is a 
germ disease which gets a stronger hold on a hen when she is 
weakened from heavy laying and as a result she dies in two 
or three days. I have also found that nearly all the loss of 
poultry is caused by germ disease, therefore the only cure is 
to destroy these germs. For this I have found nothing equal 
to Crel Oil. The roosts and dropping boards if used should 
be sprayed with this every week, sure from January 1st on 
for six months or until the heavy laying season is over. Spray 
just before hens go to roost. If you follow this up closely 
you will not only get many more eggs but your loss in hens 
will be nothing to speak of. You will get $100 in return for 
every $25 spent in Crel Oil. It is also a sure cure for gapes 
in young chickens. You should always have a supply on 
hand. 

I have also found " Little Red Hen Poultry Tonic " of 
great value during this trying time. It will keep the layers 
in perfect condition. When it is used in drinking water in 
connection with Crel Oil your loss during the Spring months 
should not be over three per cent. 



64 BRIGG'S SYSTEM OF 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
Molting 

Molting" is an important consideration especially on a 
yarded plant, but on a free-range plant I believe in keeping- 
them laying right through the molt. As a rule, when a hen 
practically has an entire new coat she will in most cases stop 
laying and take rest. A hen mu'^t have a rest and time to 
build up. On a free-range plant, if you continue your harrow- 
ing and sowing oats you can keep your birds laying pretty 
well all through without reducing their vitality. During Oc- 
tober and November, thev Avill drop off and have the rest; 
then you should have your pullet'^ under full head if you are 
in the market egg business. P>nt if you depend on selling 
egg's for hatching, then T advise you to let your hens 
have a rest during November and December, and get them 
under full headway again in January, vou will then be able 
to produce eggs that will hatch, and a\ itii other things favor- 
able, your eggs should run 90 to 95 per cent, fertile from Jan- 
uary 1 on. and hatch equal to eggs laid in March and April, 
providing your hens are fed under my system. 

In caring for a yarded plant, you will find 3'our hens will 
slack ofif laying during Juh- and August, and during vSeptem- 
ber. October and November you will get but few eggs from 
the large breeds, as a rule. All things considered, and in or- 
der to get your stock in the best possible condition for winter 
eggs, I advise keeping vour hens on nothing but processed 
oats and beef scraps during this period, for this will put them 
through the earliest molt of anything- T liave ever tried. The 
oats should contain sj^routs one-half inch long. You will al- 
so be svu-prised at the amount of ec'gs vou will get even dur- 
ing this period. 

December 1st put before them their hoppers of wheat 
screenings or cheap Avheat and to every pail of processed oats 
m\(] one teaspoonful of rayenne pepper and one of salt, which 
will make your hens very thirsty, and the more water they 
drink the more eggs they will lay. Your hens will respond 
to this treatment and surprise you on eggs and should lay as 
well during January as any month in the year. Use the cay- 
enne pepper during December. Januarv and Fcbruarv onlv. 



POULTRY RAISING 65 

CHAPTER XXIX 

Feeding and Selecting of Large Breeds Important 
Those who have a love for certain large breeds and wish 
to keep them, even if their profits are not so large, I desire 
now to particularly address. Many of those who have read 
the preceding pages of this book may get the impression 
there is no profit in any other breeds except the ones I 
have strongly advised. T do not want any one to think this, 
for any one with push and advertising can boom anv breed 
to a certain extent, but this takes money. I will name 
some of the most important large breeds for which there is 
a good demand and money in. Barred and White Plvmouth 
Rocks, Bufif Orpingtons, and White Orpingtons, Columbian 
Wyandottes, and the very popular and valuable Rhode 
Island Reds, the great wnnter lavers, and for broilers, their 
eggs also have a great sale. Two of the handsomest of 
the larg-e breeds, Avhich are now much neglected, are the 
Buff Wyandottes and Buff- Plymouth Rocks. They are 
great lavers, and it remains for some good fancier to again 
bring them to the front. There is money in any of the 
breeds I have named, as well as others. All large breeds 
need free-range to do their best, as T find they do not 
stand confinement nearly ns well as the Leghorns. For 
those favorably located on farms, and who can raise crons, 
the ideal way of feedine all large breeds during winter for 
the most ego's, and for varded plants the year round. \4 
as follows: By introduction. I mav sav, however, that this 
same system can be applied to Leghorns with wonderful 
results. It will produce the most fertile eggs of anv system 
in existence, no matter what anyone tells you. Now, in- 
stead of hopper feeding, you must raise a piece of wheat, 
or barley and oats, and Avhen ripe cut it and bind it into 
sheaves and put it in your barn. Do not thresh it. In 
November begin to give it to vour hens in the sheaf and 
let them thresh it. Give a sheaf the first thing in the 
morning, and at nine or ten a. m. give a feeHing of pro- 
cessed oats. If they need more grain, depending on the 
size of your flock, you can give another small sheaf at noon, 
or £rive a light feeding of cracked corn in the straw, and 
at 3:30 to 4 p. m. give another feeding of processed oats, 
and you will never fail to oet an abundance of eggs ; at 
the same time your birds will be in the pink of condition, 
and the eggs produced tmder these conditions will not only 
give you wonderful hatchesi of chicks, but chicks that will live 
and grow with half a chance. Always keep dry mash before 
them made according to my formula ; also a hopper of beef 
scraps. 



66 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 









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POULTRY RAISING 67- 

CHAPTER XXX 
To Erect a Yarded Plant 

First you will want a ,c:ood laying- house, and in order 
to house a largfe number of birds at the least possible 
expense and economize in labor. T advise a plain house with- 
out an alleyway, one about 80 feet long-, for in a house withr 
out an alleyway you must open all the doors in passing 
throug-h. I would divide this house into eig-ht pens, 10 by 
15 feet. The corner dimensions for the house 15 feet wide, 
80 feet long-, 7 feet high in front and 5 feet in rear ; with 
one fair sized window in each department about two feet 
from ground. Fit your windows loose and slide up to roof. 
Make holes for letting hens out under the window, fitting 
wooden slides verv loose to slide sidewavs so you can open 
and slntt them with your foot. Put in wire netting' partitions 
every ten feet and hang- your doors one foot from front of 
house with spring hinges, and have them all swing- one way, 
then you can walk right throug-h the house and your doors 
will close behind a^ou. In making the partitions you should 
always run a ten inch board across at bottom and the doors 
should swing over this. You can also fit a pan on shelf 
over this board, between partitions, part in one pen and part 
in the other, and in this way water two flocks at once. The 
nests can g-o on one side and the feed hoppers on the other. 
This house should be filled in with at least six inches of sand 
and then it will alwavs be drv. Dropping boards can be 
placed on back side of the house; a platform three feet wide 
is about rig-ht. Place three roosts over it ten inches apart, 
all on a level, one foot from platform is about rieht. You 
can keep thirtv Leghorn layers and two male birds to a pen 
nicelv in such a house as this; or, if larger birds, twentv- 
four females and two male birds. These should have yards 
50 to 150 feet loner, the longer the better, and these vards 
should at once be set out to peach or plum trees for shade, 
and cultivated about several times durincf the summer, if 
possible. 

You will need a feed-house handv bv for feed. You can 
use vour OAvn iudoment in buildinfr thi^^: size will depend 
larcrelv on si^e of plant. T advise a board floor in this and 
A^ou can put bins in and also leave a part for a picking or 
dressing" room. 

A p-ood brooder-house is the next thin? needed. The 
length of this will depend upon the size of the plant vou are 
to build or the amount of room you have at your disposal. 



08 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

It is always' best to build larg-er than you need. I advise a 
house fully 15 feet wide; and I would raise it one foot from 
ground on posts and put in a board tioor. Would also board 
this one foot space up with rough boards. I would build this 
house 7 feet high at the north side, and 4 1-2 feet at the 
south side, using a single pitch roof. Put along north side 
a 3 foot alleyway, and cut your house up into 6-foot pens. 
These will be 6 by 9 about, outside of hover, and each pen 
will accommodate one hundred chickens. Leave one foot 
only between hover and alleyway. You will need a win- 
dow in each department ; hang it at the bottom so it will 
open inside. Also put some ventilators along north side of 
house, every ten feet. Just fit in a board 3 inches wide 3 
feet long, put on hinges and let it open inside of house, and 
you will find these ventilators very fine in hot weather. 
You will need a slide in every pen in house, so you can move 
chicks from one end of house to the other. You should use 
a ten-inch board to divide all your pens, from this board up 
you can use wire netting, a foot of one inch mesh netting 
first, and from this to roof use two-inch mesh. If you breed 
Leghorns you will need to have the house wired to the roof. 
Of course, you must have a gate from alleyway into every 
pen. A brooder-house like this comes in very handy on a 
free-range plant for raising chicks during February and 
March, as you can never get out too many early chicks. 
You will also need several colony houses in yards to grow 
up your young stock in. A little house, 5 by 10, will accom- 
modate sixty to seventy-five nicely until they are large 
enough to move to your laying houses, and the oftener you 
can plow these yards and sow with oats the faster your 
chicks will grow. If you have kept them growing without 
a set-back your most forward pullets should be laying at four 
months of age. 

CHAPTER XXXI 

Fireless Brooders, Tricks of the Trade, Etc. 

Fireless brooders we read so much about, and which are 
reputed to do such wonderful things, are in my opinion an 
uncertain quantity. I want to say right here that very few, 
in my opinion, ever meet with success who try them. I sent 
$3. to the manufacturer of these brooders for one to experi- 
ment with, and must confess it was a failure with me. The 
brooder I tell vou how to make in another connection at a 
cost of only $2.50 to $3.00, cannot be beaten, at any price, 
and your chicks can remain in them until they can go with- 
out heat. You will also see advertised a trick of the trade 



Poultry raising 69 

which among- other things helps chicks out of the shell, that 
is those that cannot hatch out or do not pip. My ex- 
perience is that if your eggs are produced under natural 
conditions and you use a good incubator you will have no 
chiiks to pick out of the shell. A chick not able to get out 
Avithout help is of but little value. 

Fifteen hundred dollars from 60 hens in a year is another 
claim. This can only be done by using fancy stock, and at 
the end of the year putting a fancy value on all stock on 
hand, valuing your birds from $5. to $50. each, but if you 
turn these birds into cash you will find yourself several 
hundred dollars short. 

My system as described in this book is the greatest 
labor saving system known at the present time, many plants 
in various parts of the country are now going up or being- 
operated under my system which proves its great superi- 
ority over any other system known. My sales from 1000 
layers during 1909 was $5,000 and these sales were for eggs 
sent to market, eggs for hatching at $5. per 100, baby chicks 
at;$10 per 100, cockerels as broilers and hens for breeders at 
$1 each which were replaced by me with pullets for my own 
use. No stock at fancy prices is figured in this calculation. 
And all the labor on my plant includmg tie i, 
youngsters was performed by myself and one helper and in 
addition the crops on a 60 acre farm were cared for beside 
including 5 acres of oats, .3 acres of wheat and 2 acres of 
potatoes, gathering of the hay crop, caring for the garden, 
lawn, etc. So you can see the amount of work that can be 
done with little help under my system. 

The sales from my plant have correspondingly increased 
from year to year since 1909, and is now more than doubled, 
as double the stock is kept. 

CHAPTER XXXII 
Duck Culture 

Believing that this book may fall into the hands of many 
who raise a few ducks, and possibly in the hands of some 
who raise thousands annually, and as I have raised from five 
to ten thousand yearly for many years very successfully, and 
am able to raise nearly every duck hatched that has strength 
enough to eat and drink, I will tell how I do it. The breed- 
ing stock is the foundation of success in the duck business. 
Your breeders in every case must be young ducks. 

Never keep an old duck over the second year, for they 
will not lay before February, as a rule, while young ducks 



70 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

start in December, if properly fed and housed. I prefer 
breeders hatched in April to any other month, as they get 
fully matured early in the fall and are hatched from our 
strongest eggs. 

All breeders should be hatched from April 15 to May 15. 
Such ducks should begin to lay in December. 

Your breeding ducks can be kept on very little feed dur- 
ing September and October, but do not let| them get too poor, 
for if you do you may lose some. ( 

If you are on a farm give them range and but little feed. 
A mash of wheat bran and gluten meal, equal parts, makes a 
very cheap feed to summer them on. 

About November 1 you must begin to feed them heavier 
and house them, if you wish to get early eggs. This is where 
the profit comes in. Give a mash each morning and each 
evening from November 1st on, as follows: one part bran, 
one part middlings, one part corn meal, one part clover, 5 
per cent, beef scraps, 2 per cent, grit and oyster shells. Give 
all they will eat of this night and morning, and keep water 
by them if they do not have a pond. Also give them water 
in their houses at night. A butter tub sawed down, makes 
a handy thing for this purpose. 

About December 1, increase your beef scrap gradually 
from 5 per cent, to 10 per cent, and lift your ducks occasion- 
ally by the neck and see how they are in flesh. Do not let 
them get too fat to begin to lay in December and in January. 
If they do not gain much, and are thin in flesh, gradually in- 
crease your corn-meal and add some whole corn and whole 
wheat. The more they gain on eggs the heavier feed they 
must have to- keep them in good flesh. A good Pekin duck 
should lay from seventy-five to one hundred eggs without 
stopping. Give plenty of oyster shells and grit. It requires 
great judgment in feeding a flock of ducks to get the most 
'eggs and to have them run good and fertile. I have seen 
flocks of breeders knocked out for the whole season by get- 
ting them too fat before they got to laying good. Your 
breeders for best results should be mated up at the ratio of 
one drake to five ducks. The eggs from such a mating 
should run fully 90 per cent, fertile from March 20 on, if 
ihey do not, as a rule you will find your breeders are too fat. 

If you keep ducks for the greatest possible profit you 
will find none to equal the Pekins as layers, and quick grow- 
ers. They stand close confinement, and head the list of 
market ducks. 

In hatching duck eggs I find a temperature of 102 1-2 
plenty high for good results, and you will get much better 



POULTRY RAISING 7t 

hatches in warm weather by airing your eggs both morning 
and night. 

WJien they hatch put them in your brooder and give 
warm water to drink. Watch them closely for two days and 
teach them to go where the heat is, and after that you will 
have no further trouble. Give them warm water to drink for 
hrst two v^eeks, sure, for cold water will give them cramps, 
which quickly kills them, and if they do not die it will so 
stunt them that they will never get over it. 

If possible, give young ducks bread and milk for the, first 
five days, then change to a mash of equal pai'ts of wheat bran, 
hominy meal and gluten meal. In case you cannot get gluten 
meal use corn meal in its place, adding 5 per cent, of fine grit 
and 5 per cent, beef scraps. In case you have no milk to", 
mix this mash with you can start them on the mash, that is 
if you cannot give them the bread and milk. 

After the ducklings are two weeks old you can gradually 
change them onto a mash made as follows: One part of 
wheat bran, one part middlings, two parts corn meal, 10 per 
cent, beef scraps, a little grit. They grow very rapidly on 
this. Twenty per cent, of green feed can be added with grand 
results. After the seventh week double up your corn-meal 
and increase your beef scraps to 15 per cent, and if you have 
the large kind of Pekins they should be ready for market on 
this feed at nine weeks of age, and fully 80 per cent, of your 
liock should average five pounds each, dressed weight, many 
will go over this weight. 

This chick feed will cost you $6. per hundred, and even 
at this price it is the cheapest thing I know of for starting 
young ducks, for every one lives on it that is fit to leave the 
incubator. It is the natural duck feed, although not gener- 
ally known. 

In dressing ducks for market hang them in pairs on a 
line, and stick in roof of mouth with a sharp knife, and at the 
same time hit them a solid blow on top of the head, and pull 
out their main tail feathers and wing feathers, except flight 
feathers or plainer feathers on last or outside joint of wing. 
Soon as dead take them down, wash out mouth, and take 
them by the head, two at a time, and dip them in a kettle of 
boiling water imtil feathers come off easy. You will quickly 
learn this with a little practice. Have a pail of cold water 
ready to wet your fingers, and take the feathers from the 
bicast first, and then turn over and remove the rest, taking 
all large feathers ofif. They are then laid on a shelf for a 
"finisher," who generally gets 3 cents each. The finisher 
cleans them up. Then they go into tubs of cold water and 



72 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

later into a barrel of ice water, from which they are packed 
in barrels and heavily iced and shipped to market. 

As sooii as your breeders are clone laying, about July 1, 
they should be sent to market alive. You will never get 
more profit out of them as a rule. 

You can also make a fine profit selling duck eggs for 
hatching at $8 per hundred. A duck plant surely can make 
a fine profit if handled right, as sickness and Hce are not 
known in the duck business. Duck eggs do not hatch nearly 
as well as hen eggs in incubators as a rule, but you have no 
loss after they are hatched if handled right. 

I have carefully experimented with processed oats for 
ducks during 1907, and find this a wonderful feed for young- 
ducks. After they are two weeks old give all they will eat 
twice .daily, say 10 a. m., also 3 p m., and you will find them 
the greatest growing feed ever fed to a duck, also greatly re- 
duces the feed bill, and your young will be ready for market 
fully one week sooner. They are also a fine feed for old 
ducks, and will greatly increase the Qgg yield. Give the old 
breeders all they will possibly take noons. And if they do 
not run on grass, give them all the processed oats they 
will eat twice a day, about 11 a. m., and 3 p. m., it will not 
only produce a larger number of eggs, but more fertile. 
Always select your largest, finest ducks for breeders. 

You must remember one thing that in going in the duck 
business it means lots of hard work and, is therefore no busi- 
ness for a lazy man. But if you live near a good-sized, 
city and can work up a good, private trade for your young 
ducks among private families, markets, and hotels, and not 
have to depend on the commission man, you will find a 
fine profit in ducks. 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

Packing Eggs for Hatching and Market 

Eggs for hatching need to be packed with great care if 
you expect the eggs you send out to give satisfactory hatches. 
For single settings, 50 or 100 orders, you should buy boxes 
made for shipping eggs. I consider the wooden boxes the 
best. They are sold by many of the stock houses. 

For orders over 100 eggs I use regular egg cases. I 
never pack over four tiers in each side, and I always put 
two inches of excelsior in the bottom of the case, then a card- 
board, then a, set of fillers. I put one-half inch of ground 
cork in bottom of the filler, drop the eggs in, little end down. 
Then I cover eggs with ground cork, then another cardboard. 



POULTRY RAISING 73 

In like maner I pack the whole case with any number of eggs 
up to 288. I i always put excelsior on top of the eggs before 
nailing the cover on. 

In very cold weather I line the entire case inside with 
two thicknesses of newspaper before packing the- eggs. 
Ground cork is the lightest and warmest packing that can be 
found. I get my supply from large fruit stores. Almost any 
large fruit store has it to sell. It can also be found at first- 
class grocery stores. If you cannot get ground cork you 
can use fine-chopped hay, or hay seeds, or nice, coarse, dry 
saw-dust, but there is nothing so good as ground cork if you 
can get it. 

To pack market eggs put one-half inch of cai'dboard and 
filler. After you put in the eggs you will have some space 
between the filler and the case as a rule. Take a sheet of 
newspaper, fold it up and put it between the filler and case 
to make the tier solid so it cannot shake. Do this with 
every tier, packing five full tiers on each side, which will 
take the thirty dozen. On top of your eggs put some excel- 
sior, double your paper over, put on your lid, and your case 
of eggs should go safely any distance. I put no packing in 
my market eggs. All eggs for hatching should have a label 
pasted on top of the crate saying: "Eggs for Hatching, 
Handle With Care." 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

Telling the Sex 

This chapter is written especially for beginners, and 
those, new in the business. With some breeds it is very easy 
to tell the males from the females when very young, especially 
Leghorns. A Leghorn male will start to grow a comb 
when only two or three weeks old, and when they are six 
weeks old it is very easy to tell all the cockerels, as they will 
have large combs, and have full, long tails. Pullets do not 
start any comb to speak of until they get ready to lay, then 
their combs come out very quickly, and, as a rule, fall to one 
side, and are what we call a !!op-comb. Sexes of larger^ 
breeds are not nearly so easily told. W^e will take the 
Wyandotte for instance, as they are among the larger breeds. 
The male is always coarser than the female. His head is 
larger and coarser. His legs are coarser, and he will have 
a larger frame in every way, and will show some comb at 
six to eight weeks old, but will have no tail feathers, as a) 
rule—just a stub of tail. The pullet shows no comb to speak 
of, will have finer head, and in every way finer bone, and will 
have long tail feathers, their faces will not be as red as the 



74 BRIGGS' SYSTEM O^ 

cockerels. As a rule you will have no trouble in telling fully 
ninety per cent, of the cockerels. A small per cent, that do 
not grow and mature rapidly cannot be told from pullets at 
this young age. 

CHAPTER XXXV 
Keeping Eggs Clean in the Nests. 

This may not interest those who keep the American 
breeds that lay brown eggs, but to those who keep Leghorns 
and all Mediterranean breeds it is of much importance, for 
1 do not think any of the poultry books on the market treat 
of this. 

Now you should know, in order to command the highest 
prices for eggs in the open market, they must be perfectly 
clean and graded. You may have no idea of the amount of 
labor it requires to clean-up 1000 white eggs daily, removing 
all stains from them. 

The great question is how to keep the eggs clean in the 
nesis, which means the saving of a great amount of labor, for 
my great aim is to tell you how to handle a large plant with 
little labor, for labor costs money and reduces the profit. 
When- you cut out labor you should add to your profit every 
time. 

I find that in order to have clean eggs in the nests that 
the nests must be clean, and the great question is what to 
use in the nests to keep them clean. I find it best to put 
fine hay in the bottom of the nests, and on this put coarse 
saw-dust, perfectly dry, or shavings, as these two materials 
can be found in any city at small cost. Your nests should 
be gone over every two weeks in the spring and clean mater- 
ial put in. Oat hulls or barley hulls are a grand thing for 
nests, to help keep the eggs clean. The eggs should also be 
gathered twice daily during the Spring. Do this and you 
will have but few dirty eggs. Be sure when you gather 
your eggs that all manure be removed from the nests, and 
that no hens are allowed to roost in the nests. 

By putting perfectly clean eggs on the market your pro- 
duct will always command a better price, and be sought after. 




POULTRY RAISING 75 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

Summary. 

All oats will not grow satisfactorily, and if you get some 
that will not nearly all grow, try another lot of another deal- 
er, for when they grow satisfactorily j^ou will have a com- 
plete mass of roots and sprouts, which should be 1 to 1 1-2 
inches long. 



Have several large lots of oats growing for a large plant 
and do not get out of them, for this is your main feed for 
producing eggs and growing chicks. There is nothing like 
it. Give them all they will eat twice each day, as they will 
live and grow on this as they will on nothing else. It forms 
fully 60 per cent, of their rations after they are a week old. 



If you fail to make the success you expect under this 
system, write me, enclosing stamp, and I will straighten you 
out, for you cannot go wrong if you follow my instructions 
to the letter. 



If your little chicks are on board floors you should clean 
their pens out every four days sure, and put the leavings w 
runs of your old hens. They will clean up all the seeds and 
oats not eaten by chicks. Cover your floor lightly with 
clover. There is nothing as good. 



Your Leghorn pullets should lay at five months of age, 
if you have fed and cared for them as laid down in this book. 
If they do not, you have failed to carry out some important 
part, or your stock is not the laying kind. 



A poor memory is a bad thing for a poultry man, and 
will put you out of business. By all means put your memory 
in your business. Nothing can be neglected or forgotten if 
you wish certain success. 

Trap and poison all rats during the fall and early winter, 
for you cannot raise rats and chicks on the same plant. 



Hopper feed only wheat, such as a good grade of 
screening or a cheap grade of wheat. Do not hopper feed 
grain of any other kind and then wonder why you are not 
Sfetting results. , , 



t6 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Remember you cannot get a hen laying in a day or two. 
It takes from two to five weeks, depending on the condition 
of the hen and the time of the year. So, for big results, do 
not neglect your hen and let her stop laying. 



Do not neglect your houses and let them get full of 
mites and lice. Go over your roosts at least once a month 
during summer with crude oil and carbolic acid, half and 
half — or a good lice exterminator. Also clean droppings 
from board floors once a week sure at all times of the year, 
for lice multiply very rapidly in droppings in the summer 
time on board floors. On the ground it is different. 



In order to get the greatest egg-yield always add some 
salt to your processed oats daily the year around, not less 
than a teaspoonful to a ten-quart pailful of feed, for the 
greater amount of water a hen drinks the more eggs she will 
lay. 

In hot weather keep your oats well wet down with cold 
water so they will not spoil ; wet them thoroughly twice 
daily if necessary. Never wet them before feeding. Any 
common feeding oats will grow just as fast as high priced 
and if you want them at any time for green feed only, let 
sprouts get 1 1-2 to 2 inches long. But remember they have 
more feeding value and are the greatest egg-producers when 
sprouts are 1 to 1 1-2 inches long. Give your young chicks 
all they will eat twice a day sure. Also remember they are 
a great feed for young ducks and will grow them very 
rapidly and increase their size. Do not be afraid to give 
them all they will eat twice daily. 



While I find a good grade of wheat screenings far 
ahead of any other feed for hopper feeding, I also find it very 
hard to obtain, and at times I am compelled to feed wheat. 
If 3-ou cannot get good screenings by all means use a cheap 
grade of wheat. Red wheat is better than white wheat. 



I want to impress on you the importance of a free-range 
plant, for you cannot fail if you build one of my free-range 
systems and handle it accordingly. I know of no business 
that will make you money faster, all things considered, than 
the poultry business if handled properly. And I know of no 
business where money can be lost faster, all things consider- 
ed than in the poultry business. I iiave taken plants that 



POULTRY RAISING 



77 



have had to go out of business and started them in again 
under my free-range system, with Leghorns, nnd they liave 
made money very rapidly on the same plant, where under the 
old system they lost everything. So you can see it is proper 
feed and care that makes success certain. 



If many of your little chicks die during first two v/eeks 
you will find your trouble is with your breeders almost every 
time. To all who follow my free-range system success is 
certain. If your chicks are closely confined in small yards 
and begin to die and dwindle away at three to four weeks of 
age, you must begin to feed them on green cut bone A^hen 
three weeks old sure. Give a liberal feeding every noon. 



Spade yards up and sow with oats as often as you can 
until you get them on more range. I am always ready to 
give advice and help all I can, time permitting. 




END VIEW OF THE BRIGGS' MODEL LAYING HOUSE 



BRIGGS' SECRETS IN POULTRY CULTURE 

SUPPLEME^T TO FIFTH EDITION 

"PROFITS IN PO ULTRY KE EPING SOLVED" 

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION. 

I am giving on the few pages following some valuable 
poultry secrets as discovered in my 22 years of careful ex- 
perimenting in the poultry world, secrets of value that have 
never been published before. Poultry Secrets without a 
system to knov/ when and where and how to use them is 
like owning a steam engine and not knowing how to run it. 
By using these secrets in connection with the methods set 
forth in the preceding pages of this book, you cannot fail to 
succeed. ^ '^ EDGAK BRTGGS. 




BUFF ORPINGTON COCK, FIRST AT PHILADELPHIA 



POULTRY RAISING 79 

Secret of Success Is Handling Early Chicks. 

Under this heading I want to say that the great secret 
of success is hatching chicks in March and April. If every 
one in this country would hatch out all their chicks about 
April 1st, we would not read of so many failures, for at this 
time chicks are easily raised and if given half a chance, one 
can raise nearly every chick hatched. 

There are many advantages in hatching chicks all out at 
nearly one time. The amount of labor saved during the 
season is a wonderful item for when the chicks get to one and 
one and a half pounds they can be watered in open vessels, 
hopper fed and are all at roost, saving the labor of caring for 
brooders, all this labor is gone through and over at one time. 

Also the labor of caring for incubators is out of the way 
and you can arrange things so you can go away for a day or 
two and the chicks can take care of themselves. So I want 
to emphasize here for sure success and a saving of labor dur- 
ing the season, hatch all chicks out early and all as nearly at 
one time as possible. 

The pullets will be laying September and will pay a 
profit right through the Winter and will make the very best 
of breeders for the following season. Failures are not known 
where the chicks are all hatched early, for the cockerels are 
m.arketed as two pound broilers at a good price, generally 
for enough to mature the pullets on, so one is not out for 
feed and a profit is practically secured from the start. 

Secret of Raising Late Hatched Chickens. 

As a rule the raising of late chickens is what puts many 
poultry plants out of business. 

Chicks hatched in May, lune, and July have not the vi- 
tality to start with that the March and April chicks have and 
with the hot weather coming on to Aveaken them, at two or 
three weeks old the}^ begin to droop and die very rapidly as 
bowel trouble takes hold of them at this time, (known as 
white diarrhoea) and the result is they often die just as fast 
as you can hatch them, and the few that pull through grow 
so slow and are so puny that they never amount to much 
and are worthless as breeders. 

I will give a feeding formula that will raise nearly every 
chick hatched in May, Jwne and July, and carry them right 
through the critical age of from two to five weeks old, and 
keep them growing. 

First, spray brooder thoroughly with Crel Oil, sold at 
nearly all feed stores at $1.00 per quart. After spraying 
cover bottom of brooder with half inch of wheat bran, put on 



80 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

hover and put your chicks in. Set a small box of my dry 
mash in near them. I use a cigar box for this purpose for 
first two weeks, then use a larger one and nail a lath around 
edge so they cannot scratch the feed out, Keep this dry 
mash before them at all times. Secret of formula for making 
found in this book. Also feed three times a day a light feed- 
ing of Patent Chick Feed, or some other of good quality, 
the less cracked corn in it the better. The best chick grain 
contains no cracked corn, also give grit, and good clean 
water. And every morning give a quart of sweet milk right 
from the cow to every 100 chicks, if you keep a cow ; if not, 
it will pay you to buy the milk, as this is most important as 
on this one thing hangs the secret of success. Give them 
milk just as long as you can and you will fairly see them 
grow, and you will be able to mature them fully two months 
sooner than in any other Avay. Give all the processed oats 
they will take every noon, and if you can give them free- 
range so much the better; put them under my cultivated 
system and the raising of late chicks will become both a 
pleasure and very profitable. 

I have spent many years and hundreds of dollars in 
experimenting with late hatched chicks to find a way to 
raise them successfully and at a profit and now T am reward- 
ed; The secret alone is worth the jirice of my book many 
times over. Also give Red Hen Poultry Tonic in milk or 
drinking water riglit from the start. 

Secret of a Large Egg Yield. 

The secret of a profitable egg yield is keeping your hens 
laying the year round, or getting a large egg yield during the 
summer months of June, July, August and September, and 
this can only be done under my free-range cultivated system 
of harrowing the ground every other day sure with a spring 
tooth harrow and sow liberally with oats. As the season ad- 
vances in August and September add some corn, say three- 
quarters oats and one-quarter corn, and if you can give sour 
milk to drink, they will pay you a grand profit the entire 
season in eggs, ; 

Old hens will not lav manv eggs in October, November 
and December, no matter what you feed, so it is best to give 
th.eni a rest at this time, and not try to force them. 'Do not 
neglect the processed oats at any time of the year. They 
should have one good feed daily all summer even on free 
range with ground harrowed every other da}' or daily. The 
ground should be plowed once a month sure. 



POULTRY RAISING 



81 



Secret of Feeding Unthreshed Grain in Winter. 

I believe, as far as I know, I am the first and only one 
who has advocated this and parties who have followed my 
methods have received an exceptional egg yield during the 




FIRST PRIZE B05T0H IJOfc , 

URSl PRIZE- BOSTON 190^ IAS Cr<L )'y, - 



A HIGH CLASS S. C. WHITE LEGHORN COCK THAT WON AT SEVERAL 
OF THE LARGEST SHOWS 

Winter and the fertility of the eggs has run exceptionally 
high and given wonderful hatches. To flocks of 60 to 75 
birds, I give in the morning a good sized sheaf of oats ; at 
noon a good-sized sheaf of wheat, and at night a feeding of 



82 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

corn, which may be fed on the ear, giving it to them in the af- 
ternoons. Mornings I give a good feeding of processed oats, 
all they will eat with special Egg Maker fed according 
to directions. I keep before them all the time my dry mash 
for producing eggs, as found in this book, I also keep before 
them grit, charcoal and oyster shells, also beef scraps. This 
method is only available on farms, but it is the cheapest 
method known and the greatest egg producer, nearest to 
nature of any system in the world. 

Secret of Getting Eggs Every Month in the Year. 

At no time in the whole year are eggs so scarce as during 
October, November and December, and for profit in market 
eggs you will never find a time when fresh eggs are sought 
after more than at this time. Buyers are always ready to 
give a premium on fresh eggs at this time of year. ^ 

Now, the great question is how to get a large egg yield 
these three months. I want to say right here, a large egg 
yield at this time is hard to get, for all old hens are in molt- 
ing and can be depended on for but a few eggs. A hen can 
be kept laying until she drops nearly all her feathers, and 
then when she gets her new coat nearly all on, she is used up 
and is bound to take a two month's rest. So the only way to 
keep the egg yield up at this time is with February and 
March pullets grown to full maturity before they are allowed 
to lay, for if they lav too young their eggs are very small 
and unmarketable. When vour pullets are fully matured 
and ready to lay. or better just started, then move them to 
their laving hou.ses which may stop their laying for a short 
time ; if so it will be much better for when they start again 
their eggs will be much larger and can be marketed for reg- 
ular sized eggs. 

Now you may wonder why pullets will not lav as well at 
this time as in Spring. I will tell you why. A chicken is like 
a tree, they require the Spring sun to do their best. A 
tree drops its leaves from October on. whether we have any 
frost or not and lies dormant until the sun begins to travel 
North again and puts life in it. A hen in her natural state 
is just the same and if we expect eggs in abundance during 
these three months it requires the very best of care and feed 
and good judgment. Sour or lopper milk is a great help at 
this time. Cultivate your ground all good days and sow plen- 
ty of srrain and on bad days give grain in the sheaf; do 
evervthing possible to keep them busy, and your egg yield 
will repay you for your trouble. 



POULTRY RATSING 



83 



Secret of Curing White Diarrhoea. 

Of all the diseases that ever struck little chicks, White 
Diarrhoea is the worst and has probably killed more little 
chicks than all the other diseases put together. It will take 
whole broods off in a few days, and the further the season 







A BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK MALE SHOWING FINE SHAPE 
AND BARRING 

advances the more fatal it gets. I have known plants that 
had none of it in their early hatches, and in their late hatches 
whole broods would go with it After years of careful exper- 
imenting, I am satisfied it is a germ disease and the treatment 



84 BRTGGS' SYSTEM OF 

should be started with the old stock. T find chicks bred from 
old breeders on free cultivated range, as my book describes, 
rarely ever have any of this bowel trouble. Now as a posi- 
tive preventive, spray your houses once every two weeks 
with Crel Oil. Spray your brooders before you put your 
chicks in and after you spray it cover bottom with quarter 
inch of wheat bran and put your chicks right in and feed as 
I laid down in the Secret of Feeding Late Hatched Chicks, 
by giving sweet milk to drink, and I am sure you will see no 
trace of this trouble. Tn case you see any cases spray your 
brooder once a week with Crel Oil and put one-third of a 
teaspoonful of Humphrey's Specific J. K. to a quart of water; 
this J. K. can be bought at any drug store at 50c a bottle. 
Follow these directions closely and I am sure you will have 
no further trouble with this disease. Spray your roosts once 
a month sure all summer with this for both old and young 
stock. 

Secret of Curing Gapes. 

Gapes carries !away thousands of chicks every year, 
specialh'' among the farmers and to catch each chick and 
take the worms out is a tedious imdertaking and then you 
injure many chicks besides the large number you kill and the 
large number you let die through neglect in taking them in 
time. If you will spray your coops Avith Crel Oil before put- 
ting your chicks in and when a week old, if they show any 
trace of it, spray coops aeain at night just before they go to 
roost ; this will prevent it, but if any show gapes after this 
just take them all and put them in a box that has just had 
the bottom spraved with it, cover with an old bag and all 
the worms in wn'ndpipe will quicklv be killed. Every one 
that has followed my directions has cured their chicks and 
not lost one. 

Secret Formula for Making the Cheapest and Best Lice 
Powder Known. 

The lice powder T am going to tell you how to make 
may be made at 8 to 9 cents a pound, and is far superior to 
the powders sold on the market at 25 cents per pound, and 
will not only kill all the lice it comes in contact with, but 
will remain on the hen for two or three davs. Buy at vour 
drug store one pound of Persian Insect Powder and from 
your feed store three pounds of Red Dog Flour, usuallv one 
and one-half cents a pound, or the best white middlings; 
mix this thoroughly and you have four pounds of the best 
insect powder known. The Persian Insect Powder usually 
costs thirty cents a pound. 



Poultry raising 



85 



Secret of Making the Best Liquid Lice Killer. 

This lice killer I consider far superior to any now sold 
on the market at any price and can be bought at almost any 
drug store, at a cost of about 50 cents per gallon. Take a 
gallon can to your druggist and have him put in it half crude 
carbolic acid and half crude oil; shake this up well and you 
have one of the best lice paints that can be made. Just spray 
your houses once a month with this and you will never be 
troubled with lice. 




A BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK HEN REPRESENTING A FINE TYPE OF 
THIS POPULAR BREED 



86 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Secret of Raising Turkeys, 

This secret will be more than valuable to those who try- 
to raise ' a large number of turkeys yearly, and have met 
with severe losses, for it is now generally conceded that tur- 
keys are the hardest to raise of any of the feathered tribe. 
They may look fine today and be dead tomorrow. I have 
been carefully e:^perimenting- to perfect a system with which 
I could raise nearly every turkey hatched. When I take the 
young ones from the nest I first put them in a small box 
that has been sprayed with Crel Oil. I then put a loose bag 
over them and leave them 5 minutes so they will breathe this 
thoroughly to kill all germs. This should be done once a 
week for 5 weeks as I find the greatest loss comes from a germ 
disease and when you kill the germ you can raise turkeys 
and in no other way. Turkeys two years old make the best 
breeders as their young are much stronger. I shut the old 
turkey in a coop of good size for first two weeks with chicks 
and feed them principally on a Special Patent Chick grain 
and cracked corn cooked. A curd made from loppered 
milk is also very good. I give them sweet milk to drink. 
A fountain of milk and one of water. They have this every 
morning and are fed lightly three times daily. After two 
weeks old I put three drops of Spirits of Camphor to a quart 
of water and if at any time I see any of them droop I increase 
the camphor to five drops to a quart of water. This braces 
them right up and carries them safely through the critical 
period. It is a pleasure to see them grow. The sweet milk 
just pushes them right through. After five weeks of age 
they can be put on good wheat screenings and cracked corn 
dry and will thrive fine if given plenty of range. A cow 
pasture makes an ideal range for turkeys. In the early fall 
put them on whole corn and good wheat. You will find 
more profit in a flock of turkeys than anything you raise 
on your farm. Just try this method and I am sure you will 
have no further trouble in raising turkeys. 

Briggs' Secret Dry Mash for Baby Chicks. 

The dry mash T am going to tell you how to make, has 
proven for me to be the greatest dry mash for growing chicks 
from shell to maturity of any mixture I have ever been able 
to secure and I consider it the nearest perfect of any mash 
ever compoimded. 

Take by weight 100 lbs. wheat bran. 100 lbs. middlings, 
100 lbs. corn meal, 100 lbs. gluten meal, mix thoroughly and 
keep before them at all time. Also keep before them grit 
and beef scraps. 



Poultry ratsing 



87 



Briggs' Secret Dry Mash for Laying Fowls. 

Take equal parts by weight of wheat bran, white mid- 
dHngs, corn meal, gluten meal and ground oats ; mix thor- 
oughly and keep before them in hoppers. Feed some grain 
by hand and the results will surprise you. 

Secret Egg Preserving Formula, 
Purchase from your druggist as much .Silicate of Soda as 
you ma}" wish. Mix it with cold water in the proportion of 
six parts of water to one of Silicate of Soda. Use newly laid 
eggs not more than one week old. Dip each egg separately 
in the solution, and place it in a vessel large part down ; then 
pour over the eggs enough of the solution to entirely im- 




A. FAMOUS PEN OF PRIZE WINNING S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 



88 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

merse them. Do not fail to dip each egg separately before 
placing in the vessel, and hold the egg in your hand for two 
or three seconds after you have dipped it, that the coating 
may set, and place in the vessel as directed. Cover the ves- 
sel up and the next day or the next week, as the case may be, 
when you wish to add more eggs, repeat the operation of dip- 
ping, set the eggs in on top of those already in the vessel ai. 
cover again with the solution. You will find the air has been 
entirely excluded from the shell, and the eggs have been 
hermetically sealed and will stay fresh indefinitel}^ if you 
have properly handled them. 

Secret of Breeding for Layers. 

After two years careful experimenting on my new plant 
and from careful observation from other plants, I have come 
to the conclusion that it does not pay to trap nest to produce 
a strain of prolific layers, in fact, every large plant that has 
tried it as a rule has given it up or has been compelled to sell 
out in 2 or 3 years. Exceptions to this rule are very scarce. 
'J"he amount of labor that it requires to run a plant with trap 
nests will quickly put it out of business. The greatest suc- 
cess today comes from the system where but little labor is 
required and my system stands alone in' this respect. You 
may not know that the Maine Experiment Station made a 
careful test for ten years wnth trap nests using all the differ- 
ent nests known, for money was no object and after breed- 
ing from their greatest layers for ten years by the use of the 
trap nest their average per hen was over 30' eggs less per hen 
than when they started. This I am sure is a great surprise 
to the poultry world and proves beyond a doubt that it does 
not pay to trap nest birds. To breed up a strain of heavy 
layers without extra labor, take each year about half your 
pullets, those that matui^e the quickest and start to lay ahead 
of the rest, and flock them by themselves and band them so 
they will be known from the others, for they are bound to 
make your best layers. Mate these with your earliest ma- 
turing cockerels and continue to do this year after year, using 
the selected pullets two years for breeders. In this way you 
not only get a phenominal flock of layers but your birds will 
increase in size and vigor and sickness will rarely be known 
among then. Slow maturing birds are much more subject 
to disease, and never prove great layers while the quick ma- 
turing kind do. You will find this system of picking out the 
layers far ahead of any svstem now in use and the only sys- 
tem in my estimation that will ever prove a success. 



POULTRY RAISING 89 

Secret of Telling the Laying Hen. 

This secret is often vaUiable during the early fall when 
hens are slacking off fast on egg yield, and you might wish to 
market a part of the flock that are through laying or might 
want to kill a pair for dinner and certainly would not want 
to kill the layers. You may always know that as a rule a 
hen with a bright red comb is a laying hen so do not kill 
these kind. Rather kill the lazy looking hens, those with 
pale combs. After catching them up notice if you can lay 
three fingers between the pelvic bones which are just below 
the vent. In old hens you can lay 3 fingers between these 
bones if they are laying. Leghorns often lay when only two 
fingers can be laid between the bones. The egg passes be- 
tween these bones in being deposited. If the bones are close 
together and stifif you may safely conclude that the hen is 
not laying and will not lay for several weeks as a rule. I 
understand this is the same system as is used by several 
others although I have never seen their system. 

Secret of Fattening Poultry. 

If for broilers take chicks that are about 1 1-2 lbs. each 
in weight, and put them in flocks of about fifty. If they have 
had free range so much the better. If they have a good large 
house they will need no yard. One of my 10 by 20 houses 
is just right for 50 to 75 chicks. I advise feeding them two 
weeks before killing. Mix up dry six parts corn meal, two 
parts middlings, one part gluten meal, one part linseed meal, 
and one and one-half parts beef scraps and ^dd 5 per cent, 
grit; mix thoroughly dry and before feeding mix with milk 
either sweet or sour or with water and give them all they 
will eat twice daily. Keep before them all the time, six parts 
corn meal and two parts beef scraps mixed dry, keep this in 
a box so they can have free access to it at all times and in 
two weeks they should be as fat as squabs and weigh two lbs. 
and over each. I '. 

Secret of Breaking Up Broody Hens Quickly. 

The great secret of breaking up broody hens quickly is 
to shut up a number together, a dozen or more. Put them 
in a coop right on the ground with a wire netting front and 
they will not think of setting, where one hen is alone in such 
a coop a persistent setter will scratch a nest at one end and 
go to setting. If you take every setter oiif the nest the very 
night they start to set you can as a rule break them up in 
three days. Always keep water before them but give but 



90 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



little feed while they are shut up. Tn case you shut up your 
broody hens only once a week and want to break them up 
quickly put them in a small pen. Arrange one or two roosts 
depending upon how many hens you have shut up and put 




SILVER DUCK WING LEGHORN FIRST MADISON SQUARE 

with them a good vigorous cockerel. If you have a male 
bird, sickly or not doing well put him in this same pen and 
you will be surprised to see how quickly he will get well and 
your setting hens will all be on the perches. This soon will 
break up the most persistent setters in three or four days. 



POULTRY RAISING 91 

Secret of Molting Fowls Early. 

It is a question yet unsolved whether it pays to have 
hens molt early or keep them laying as long as possible and 
let them molt rather late. I am satisfied after experimenting 
carefully along these lines that it pays to keep the hens lay- 
ing just as long as possible and do their molting during Oc- 
tober and November, so as to get them laying again in De- 
cember or January. A good hen will lay all through the 
molt but when she is finishing her coat she will stop in near- 
ly every case and have a rest. Nothing will molt them so 
fast as processed oats and beef scraps. To have them molt 
in June and July just take away all grain and give all pro- 
cessed oats keeping beef scraps before them all the time 
and they will surprise you in the short time they will be in 
getting a new- coat of feathers. Try this for birds you wish 
to exhibit at Fall shows. A bird in new plumage always does 
the winning. 

Secret of Preparing White Birds for Exhibition. 

To prepare white birds for exhibition and have them 
white as snow with that glossy finish, is an art that few pos- 
sess. In our large shows where judges have gone color crazy 
it is no longer an easy matter to win a prize. In washing 
white birds I use four tubs of water. In first tub of warm 
water I shave half a cake of Ivory soap and make a good 
suds, then I use half a cake of soap, a good hand brush and I 
soak the bird thoroughly and rub plenty of soap into the 
feathers and give her a thorough scrubbing; then put her in 
next tub of clean warm water and wash her thoroughly, get- 
ting all soap out of the feathers, then I put her in the third 
tub of warm water. In this tub of water I put a small 
amount of bluing and wash all traces of soap out of her ; 
she then goes in a fourth tub of cold water nicely blued but 
not enough to color the feathers, rinsing her thoroughly and 
then I put her in a clean cage to dry where the temperature 
is about 80 degrees, using plenty of clean straw in bottom, 
the cage being provided with wire netting bottom. Wash 
the feet and legs thoroughly and pick oflf all old scales. In 
washing white birds you should remove all colored feathers 
as they show plainly when wet. After your birds are dry 
and do not come out chalk white have on hand some per- 
oxide of hydrogen and take a sponge and go over them with 
this being careful to get none on legs. This will put them 
in pink of condition. After this put some vaseline on their 
legs rubbing them well with it. If you have done your 



92 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



work thoroughly your bird will be in fit condition to go into 
any show and win the blue ribbon if it has the natural qual- 
ity. You should tame 3'our birds so they will be very gentle 
and pose nicely for the judge. A bird must be trained to 
show its shape if you expect to win in strong competition. 




R. C. RHODE ISLAND RED 

The Secret of Feeding Salt. 

It is not generally known to the poultry world that salt 
is the greatest conditioner and the greatest egg producer 
known to the poultry world. Poultry will be in much better 
condition and lay fully 2.S per cent more eggs per year per 
hen if fed a reasonable amount of salt the year around and 
the whole flock will be in much finer condition for it. 



POULTRY RAISING 



93 



I am satisfied after a series of careful experimenting that 
the only perfect way to feed it is by mixing it with processed 
oats or barley whichever you process. An ounce to 100 hens 
is about right or a small handful to a large pail of feed. 
Fowls are just crazy all the time for the processed oats which 
have been salted as directed. I discontinued salt on one lot 




A WELL BRED S. C. WHITE LEGHORN COCK 

of layers during luly and started it again in August and 
doubled the e^g yield in 15 days from the time I started us- 
ing it again. Young chicks will grow much faster and keep 
much more healthy if fed processed oats salted same as for 
laying hens. The loss should be nothing to speak of and 
birds will mature and lay fully a month sooner. If you want 
to obtain the greatest profit from your poultry plant do not 
fail to use salt the year around as directed. 



94 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

RESULTS: 

Among the thousands who have bought my book I find 
there are a few who want results of my plant m figures. On 
account of selling part of my breeders every season begin- 
ning in August, for this reason it is impossible to give results 
on my plant for one year, but to show you what can be done 
with 1000 layers in seven months, starting January 1, I have 
carefully gone over my books and am giving you results in 
sales of eggs and baby chicks only for seven months for the 
reason that Poultry Success has been advertising $3500 in 
seven months from 1000 layers. When I gave them these 
figures I had no idea my sales were about $4,000 in the 
seven months, had I taken sales of stock and broilers in my 
estimate which I did not. First I will give you sales of eggs 
for each month for seven months beginning January 1, and 
will give you a separate account of baby chicks sold monthly. 
This will give you some idea what can be done by care if 
you will follow my method and do a liberal amount of ad- 
vertising for you cannot sell hundreds and thousands of dol- 
lars' worth of eggs for hatching and baby chicks if you do 
not advertise liberally. In giving the sales of eggs and baby 
chicks for seven months I want to say 100 Leghorn hens 
were sold May 10th for $13.5.00. So from May 10th on I 
had only 900 layers in my estimate. T will first give you 
my sale of ejjgs bv months: January, $123.50; February, 
$271.84; March, $385.18; April, $740.82; May. $406. 96; June, 
$182,64; July, $201.36; or a total of $2312,30 worth of eggs in 
seven months from 1000 layers. Now remember this is in- 
dependent of the eggs used for hatching 2,000 young chicks 
for mv own plant. The baby chicks sold as follows: March, 
$186.40; April, $343; May, $459.93; June, $197.50; July, $79, 
oir a total of $1,265.83 for baby chicks for first seven months 
and all Leghorn baby chicks were sold at $10.00 per 100 and 
the average hatches were 300 to 330 chicks from 400 eggs 
set, which proves that my eggs run fertile as I claim and 
give phenomenal hatches of chicks that are so large and 
strong that they are easily raised with but little care. In 
closing I want to say what I have done T believe can easily 
be done by anyone who will put up one of my free-range 
plants and follow my method as laid down in this book and 
do a liberal amount of advertising. I want to say that the 
total sales from 1,000 layers at end of year will exceed $5,000. 
So you must know that there is a fair amount of profit left 
such as but few other kinds of business can return. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS 



62 
56 
22 
46 
65 

59 
67 



A combinatiou plant . . . 
A Leghorn plant for profit 
An egg plant for profit . . 

A perfect brooder 

A system for large breeds . 
A White Wyandotte plant for 

profit 

A yarded plant, how to erect 

B. 



Bees 62 

Bowel trouble, cause and cure 49 

Breeders, loss of 63 

Breeding for layers 88 

Brigg's dry mash for baby 

chicks 86 

Briggs' dry mash for laying 

fowls 87 

Brigg's poultry plant .... 7 

Broilers, how to raise .... 49 

Brooder, a perfect 46 

Brooder, a fireless 6S 

Broody hens, how to break . 89 



Care of laying hens on free 

range 21 

Caring for a yarded plant . 36 
Changing breeding stock 

34, 35, 44 

Chicks, how to feed 49 

Chicks raised nature's way . 41 

Colds and roup 52 

Colony, size of 12 

Combination plant for profit 

—Fruit, Poultry and Bees 62 
Construction of model laying 

house 15 

D. 

Desirable size of plant. ... 15 

Dry mash for baby chicks . 86 

Dry mash for laying fowls . 87 

Duck culture 69 

E. 

Early chicks 79 

Eggs, keeping clean in nest . 74 

Eggs every month in the year 80 

Egg preserving formula ... 89 



F. 

Fattening poultry, how to 

do it 89 

Failures 10 

Feed for young ducks .... 69 

Feed hoppers 20 

Feed, processed 26 

Feeding and selection of large 

breeds 65 

Feeding chicks 41 

Feeding salt 92 

Feeding system when wheat 

and oats can not be used 53 

Feeding unthreshed grain . 81 

Fences 13 

Fireless brooder 68 

Free range plant with least 

labor 34 

Fruit, poultry and bees ... 62 

Q. 

Gapes, secret of curing and 

how to prevent 84 

H. 

Hatching baby chicks for 

market 45 

Hatch, when to 41 

Helping chicks out of shell . 67 
Hen in wild or natural state 12 

Hoppers for feed 20 

Hoppers, making of 20 

House, incubator 38 

House, model laying house 

plan 15 

House, construction of model 

laying 15 

How to erect and run a 

poultry plant for profit . 12 
How to keep green feed all 

summer in a yarded plant 36 
How to make best lice pow- 
der 84 

How to make best liquid lice 

killer 85 

How to start in the poultry 

business 54 

How to tell the laying hen . 89 

I. 

Incubator house, how to build 38 
Incubator, how to run ... 38 



APR 25 1913 



K. 



Keeping eggs clean in nest . 74 



L. 



Late hatched chicks 79 

Laying hens, care of on range 21 

Laying hens, how to tell . . 89 

Laying house . 15 

Laying out a plant 13 

Leghorn plant for profit . . 56 

Lice powder, how to make . 84 

Liquid lice killer, how to make 85 

Location of plant 12 

Loss of breeders 63 

M. 

Molting 64 

Molting fowls earlv, how to 

do it ". 91 

N. 

Nests 19 

O. 

Oats, sprouted 26 

Oats, sowing for flock .... 31 



P. 



Secret of breaking up broody 

hens quickly 89 

Secret of curing gapes .... 84 
Secret of curing white diar- 
rhoea 83 

Secret of fattening poultry . 89 

Secret of feeding salt .... 92 
Secret of feeding unthrashed 

grain 81 

Secret of getting eggs every 

month in the year .... 82 

Secret of large egg yield . . 80 
Secret of making best and 

cheapest lice powder . . 84 
Secret of making best liquid 

lice killer 85 

Secret of molting fowls early 91 
Secret of preparing white 

fowls for exhibition ... 91 

Secret of preserving eggs . . 87 

Secret of raising turkeys . . 86 
Secret of raising late hatched 

chicks 79 

Secret of sticcess 10 

Secret of telling the laying hen 89 
Selection and feeding of large 

breeds 65 

Sex, telling the 73 

Size of colony or flock ... 13 

Slope of land 13 

Soil 13 

Specifications of model laying 

house 1.5 

Sprouting oats 26 

Starting in ths poultr3' busi- 
ness, when and how . . 54 
Summer care of flock .... 31 



Packing eggs for hatching and 

market 72 

Plan of model laying house . 15 
Preparing white fowls for ex- 
hibition 91 

Processed oats, feeding ... 26 

Processed oats, how to make 26 
Processed feeds and how to 

produce them 26 

R. 

Raising broilers 49 

Raising chicks nature's way 41 

Raising late hatched chicks . 79 

Roup 52 

Results, financial 94 

S. 

Salt, feeding 92 

Secret of breeding for layers 88 



T. 



Telling the sex 73 

Turkeys, secret of raising . . 86 

W. 

Water supply by streams or 

springs 12 

Watering in winter .... 25, 26 

White diarrhoea 49, 83 

White fowls, how to prepare 

for exhibition 91 

White Wvandotte plant for 

profit" 59 

Winter care of layers . . . 21-22 

Y. 

Yarded plant, caring for . . 36 

Yarded plant, how to erect . 67 



THE BRIGG8 iSYSTE.7Vf 



I THE BP 

I PROFITS JN 

POULTIMLEPING 

SOLVED 




Worth Looking Into 



THE "Briggs' Method" is a good 
thing and the pubHshers want many 
more agents to handle this book and also 

POULTRY SUCCESS 

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Springfield, Ohio 



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SIX STANDARD BOOKS ON MANAGING THE POULTRY PLANT 

Profits in Poultry Keeping Solved, .,tion of practical methods. Full of 

by Ed^ar Briu«s. 1 liw i;^ ti.e new re- ,„oderii methods and short cuts, 

y.sed .Uh edition .if this famous book ^^ poultry raiser needs this book, 

jirst oii the press, covering every Price 50 cents, 
phase of the business. 

The Smith Method, a treatise ..n , P""'*':?' Common Sense, our latest 
the p..ssibilities of the small plant. ^'"'^- t/iHot short cuts to success- 
one of the mo.t valuable poultry f"' Poultry raising. Contains ess, 
books out. Tliorouffhly practical '*P ''"'} ''"^hing records. Refeular 
and helpful. ""•'«« ^ ^^ents. 

UD=to=Date Poultry Houses and , All About Indian Runner Ducks. 

Appliances, containing .irawiuKs and ""^^t- Vl""U'A"'?'''*"l' ''^'^ r'^'iahle 

designs for building the modern book byMrs.D O.Teasley.Mrs.Andrew 

plant. A very valuable book, yvell Brooks. Mrs. U. R Fishe^. Mrs. Geo. 

illustrated. Price 50 cents. E .Simpson and others. Every pha'^e 

of the Duck business covered in a 

Poultry Keeping In a Nut=Shell. practical manner. Regular Price 75 

a book Cliat gives a concise compil- cents. 

READ THIS PROPOSITION CAREFULLY 

POULTRY success for one vear and either Briggs or 

Smith books , $L00 

POULTRY SUCCr::SS for three years and either Briggs 

or Smith books .$1.50 

POULTRY SUCCESS for one vear and both Briggs and 

Smith books if l.')0 

POULTRY SUCCESS for one vear and All About Indian 

Runner Ducks $1.00 

POULTRY SUCCESS one year and either Up-to-date 
Poultry Houses or Poultry Keeping in a Nut-shell or 
Poultry Conmion Sense "'Oc 

POULTRY SUCCESS for three months' trial lOc 

(America's foremost poultry magazine, its pages filled to over- 
flowing with valuable short cut^, live pi.mltry news, interesting- 
articles by l)ig men in the poultry ^vorld). 

Write TO-DAY, inclosir.g stamps or cash. 

A. D. HOSTERMAN CO., Publisher, SPRINGFIELD, 0. 

Eastern Office, Press Building, Binghampton, N. Y. 



LBS 13 



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